Mother of ISIS Beatle is COMFORTED by his capture

The father of one of the two Isis Beatles has broken his silence by admitting he doesn’t know what will happen to his recently captured son.

El Shafee Elsheikh, 29, was detained in January by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces alongside Alexanda Kotey, 34, a fellow member of the brutal execution squad. 

Elsheikh’s father, Rashid, said: ‘We don’t know what is going to happen to our son’, as he left the home of his former wife Maha Elgizouli, in White City, London – the first time the pair have been seen since Elsheikh’s arrest.

El Shafee Elsheikh, 27, (pic in an undated image) who was known as one of the brutal terrorists known as The Beatles because of his British accent, has been captured in Syria 

Meanwhile, Elshikh’s mother, feels ‘comforted’ her son has been captured as it means he will not die as a jihadist like her other child, according to a family friend. 

His capture will be a relief to Maha, according to a friend, who told MailOnline: ‘I don’t know when or even if she will ever see her son Elshafee again but knowing he is at least alive will bring her comfort.’

Elsheikh other brother, Mahmoud, also adopted a fundamentalist version of Islam and was killed in 2015 fighting near Tikrit in Iraq.

Alexanda Kotey was from Paddington and is seen in an undated photo. In January 2017, US authorities named Kotey as a member of the cell and said they had imposed sanctions on him

Alexanda Kotey was from Paddington and is seen in an undated photo. In January 2017, US authorities named Kotey as a member of the cell and said they had imposed sanctions on him

The neighbour, a 52-year-old mother of four who gave her name only as Ola, said: ‘She has already lost one son fighting in Syria so has been through that pain before.

‘I remember the day she found out her youngest son Mahmoud had died in 2015, she was sitting down and crying uncontrollably.

‘The whole family had arrived to console her but she was in pieces and kept saying the words ‘they’ve killed him’ over and over.

‘I don’t know when or even if she will ever see her son Elshafee again but knowing he is at least alive will bring her comfort.’

Miss Elgizouli eldest son, Khalid, was sentenced to ten years in prison for possessing a firearm after the killing of a gang member involved in a dispute with the family.

But despite the siblings’ disastrous adult lives, Ola insisted they were still a ‘good family’.

She added: ‘Her eldest son Khalid is in jail in this country and she still speaks to him, he’s the only she has spoken to for years.

‘They are a good family. Growing up the boys were very western in their behaviour and what they wore.

‘They used to play football and other games with my kids in the street outside. The family would have parties and invite friends and family round to their house.

The most notorious member of the Beatles, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, was vaporised by a drone strike in November 2016

The most notorious member of the Beatles, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, was vaporised by a drone strike in November 2016

‘But in recent years, the stress of everything began to take its toll. Whenever she spoke to me about her boys in Syria she would break down and cry.

‘They were from a warm loving family so I don’t know why they decided to go over there and do what they did.’

His mother broke down in tears after being told in May 2016 that he had been involved with the Beatles, which murdered and tortured dozens of people.

‘No, no, not Shafee,’ she sobbed. ‘That boy now is not my son. That is not the son I raised.’

Both Elsheikh’s parents fled the civil war in Sudan in the 1990s – where they were members of the Communist Party – but the father, poet Rashid Sidahmed Elsheikh, left the family when Elsheikh was just seven years old.

As a young man, Elsheikh enjoyed working on bikes and motorcycles in the family’s garden, and went on to study mechanical engineering at Acton College.

Elsheikh was close to his siblings, according to a close family friend, who told The Independent: ‘The brothers loved each other very much.

He found work in a garage and then as a mechanic for a local funfair, but in 2011 became friends with a young man whose father was an Islamist rabble-rouser advocating jihad.

His mother said: ‘I came straight to him and said, ‘Never in your life come into this home and talk about jihad.’ Me, I teach my kids about religion, not you. Don’t give them any information about anything.’

Miss Elgizouli claims her son was radicalised by Hani al-Sibai, an infamous Islamist preacher who described the London 7/7 bombings as a ‘great victory’.

She said that one day she heard her son listening to a CD with the teachings of Sibai, who is said to have inspired last year’s Tunisian beach massacre and be linked to Jihadi John.

She added: ‘I found him with him in the back garden listening to a CD. He passes me the CD and it is a man who is working in a mosque in the high road.’

Miss Elgizouli once caught him watching a video of the imam espousing the virtues of dying in the name of God.

The fourth member, Davis, was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017

The fourth member, Davis, was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017

She said she asked her son: ‘Shafee, you want to go and be a dead Muslim?’ He answered, ‘No mummy’, she said.

She claims that within 17 days, her ‘perfect’ son was wearing long robes, growing a beard, and preaching holy war.

And she says she powerless to protect her sons because, as a single woman – after the boys’ father left – she was not allowed into mosques to hear what the imams were telling them.

A family friend told Buzzfeed that one day he came from prayer and pointed at his mother aggressively, then told her Allah teaches that your mother can be your enemy.

When he went to Syria, she said he just left her a note saying ‘gone to fight for God’.

Kotey, like Elsheikh, was radicalised as a young adult and even attended Greek Orthodox Church as a child.

Bethany Haines, 20, whose father David was abducted in Syria in early 2013 before being murdered in September the following year, spoke to Good Morning Britain today on the phone

The father of two grew up in Paddington and has been described as of a Ghanaian and Greek-Cypriot background.

Catherine Downie, Kotey’s step-aunt from Hove, East Sussex, initially claimed she did not know how he was.

But then told MailOnline: ‘I never met him, I never knew him, no-one ever speaks about him.’

She said her husband Jason no longer spoke to his own brother, Mark, and his wife, Christina, in London adding: ‘They’re all estranged. No-one sees them anymore.’

The family live in a large £750,000 Victorian townhouse in an upmarket area of Hove.

Kotey’s aunt Amanda was listed at a smart two-bedroom basement flat in a large Victorian mansion less than half a mile from the seafront.

Once described as a ‘polite’ boy by neighbours, Kotey is said to have attended the al-Manaar mosque in Ladbroke Grove with Emwazi and Aine Davis, another Beatles member.

A local community worker said the trio were ‘physically ejected’ from the mosque because of their extremist views.

The worker said ‘He would definitely be standing there with, I’d say a dozen boys all listening to him. He was the speaker. He was the spokesman in that little group.

‘It was Alex most definitely who was the lynchpin. The mosque did so much to keep these people at the fringes.’

‘The way he secretly operated he was a roadman, a gangster.

‘He had the skills of influencing people he could see as influential or vulnerable so they could bring their friends in.

‘They would have used the same tactics as gangs to recruit people. Like grooming, he gave them a sense of belonging. They couldn’t get job or uni course they wanted.

‘Through remote network and services, he would have people he delegated responsibility to. They could have helped and advise them on how to get to Syria.’

A statement released by the wider family said they were aware of Kotey’s capture: ‘The Kotey family has seen news about Alexe today. 

 It comes Bethany Haines, whose aid worker father David was killed in 2014 after being held captive for 18 months, said she hoped the pair’s detention could bring some closure for relatives of those killed.

Unnamed US Officials said Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which were fighting the last remaining pockets of ISIS fighters near the river Euphrates on the Iraq/Syria border (pictured)

Unnamed US Officials said Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which were fighting the last remaining pockets of ISIS fighters near the river Euphrates on the Iraq/Syria border (pictured)

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I got a call late last night to say that they had been captured and the first thought was relief, finally to know that the people that were involved in my dad’s murder have been caught and will sort of serve some justice.’

Asked what she would like to see happen now, she replied: ‘In my opinion, they shouldn’t be breathing but that’s not really a realistic kind of expectation.

‘I think that they should be locked up with the key thrown away and never to be released.’

She added: ‘It was always kind of the unanswered question as to where they were and could they do this sort of thing again?

‘And yes, this sort of thing might happen again but the specific people that carried it out before have now all been caught and I think it will bring a lot of closure to all the families.’  

The capture of Elsheikh and Kotey means all of the Beatles are now killed or captured. 

Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, was vaporised by a drone strike in November 2016.

The fourth member, Aine Davis, was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017 



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