Mother ‘begged for life' of IS hostage, court hears

Kayla Mueller was an aid worker in Syria before being taken captive by IS

Parents of a US humanitarian worker killed by the Islamic State begged for her life in emails to her captors, a court has heard.

Kayla Mueller, 26, was one of several people who died at the hands of a Syria-based IS terror cell dubbed the Beatles due to their British accents.

On Tuesday, her mother Marsha spoke at the federal trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, known as "Jihadi George".

He has denied charges of hostage-taking and conspiracy to murder.

Mr Elsheikh is the highest profile IS fighter to face trial in the US and the only alleged member of the notorious Beatles cell to do so.

He has been linked to at least 27 abductions, but has asserted that he was not part of the group.

• Who were the Islamic State 'Beatles'?

The Sudanese-born Londoner, who was stripped of his British citizenship in 2018, is accused of taking hostages, resulting in the deaths of four Americans - Ms Mueller, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.

He is also charged with conspiring in the deaths of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.

In opening statements last week, his lawyer argued that he was "a simple ISIS fighter" who went to Syria alone to support "suffering Muslims".

But prosecutors played back past media interviews with Mr Elsheikh that contradict the claim he was not involved in the hostage taking scheme.

During one interview, Mr Elsheikh describes asking the jailed Ms Mueller for an email address to reach her family, although he goes on to say he never sent any emails.

Inside the Virginia courthouse on Tuesday, Ms Mueller's mother described exchanging several emails with the IS captors, in which she begged for her daughter's life.

In their first contact with the so-called Beatles, she and her husband Carl were asked to submit proof of life questions for Ms Mueller to answer.

Later emails include a video addressed to then-IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which Marsha wore a hijab "to show respect".

The Beatles wrote back demanding either a ransom of five million euros or the release of jihadist Aafia Siddiqui from a US federal prison, within 30 days.

Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman sometimes known as "Lady Al-Qaeda", is serving 86 years for the attempted murder of US soldiers.

When the Muellers replied they were retired and the payoff was "more than [what] we could earn in several lifetimes", the captors wrote: "get back to work", the court heard.

The Obama administration had reassured the Muellers that "IS won't harm a woman", Marsha testified. But US officials confirmed in February 2015 that Ms Mueller had been killed in custody. Her body was never recovered.

Marsha sat just yards away from the accused, who sat still leaning back in his chair and took no notes during the testimony.

As the court broke for lunch, Omar Alkhani, who was Ms Mueller's boyfriend and was attending court with her family, got up from his seat, lent over the bar and pointed towards Mr Elsheikh as he was being escorted out.

Mr Alkhani raised his voice in Arabic and said: "He is in hell you will see him there," in an apparent reference to the former commander of the prison where Ms Mueller had been held before she died.

Emotions continued to run high into the afternoon, with the father of Mr Sotloff - an American Israeli freelance journalist beheaded in 2014 - struggling to hold back tears on the stand.

Steven Sotloff was a freelance journalist working in Syria when he was taken captive

Arthur Sotloff told the court that the first ransom email he received from the kidnappers described his son as having played a prominent role in "the US government's battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims".

In the note, the hostage takers called for the release of "all Muslim people imprisoned directly or indirectly by Americans" in return for the junior Sotloff's return. Arthur said he had no choice but to keep quiet as the group had demanded media silence.

The Sotloffs too sent a video message to their child's captors, playing to their supposed piety by stating that Islam is a merciful religion and the Prophet Muhammad would want them to act differently.

Months later, they heard their son's voice for the last time. In an apparently coerced recording, Mr Sotloff asked his family to fight for him and said "my life lies in the hands of President Obama".

On 3 September 2014, Arthur found out by a news alert that his son had been executed in a publicly released video. He was visibly shaking when he walked off the stand and was comforted by Ms Mueller's father as they left the court.

A day earlier, James Foley's mother had testified that she had at first hoped reports her son had been executed were "some cruel joke". She told the court: "It just seemed too horrific."

Mrs Foley said it only sank in when President Barack Obama confirmed on television that James had been executed.

The Elsheikh trial continues and is expected to last three to four weeks.