One of the ‘ISIS Beatles,’ Alexanda Kotey, 39, who was given a life sentence for the execution and torture of western captives, is missing from the prison system.
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) data showed that Kotey, is no longer being held at the maximum security Canaan prison in Pennsylvania.
The Londoner was sentenced to prison in America last year after entering a guilty plea to eight offences in 2021 involving the kidnapping, torturing, and beheading of Islamic State hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015.
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The daughter of a British aid worker who Kotey killed is among the family members of his victim who are outraged and confused by his absence. In August of last year, Kotey—a member of the terror network known as “Jihadi George”—was dispatched to Canaan.
He agreed to a plea bargain that contained “cooperation conditions” and avoided doing his time in Colorado’s ADX Florence prison, also known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” Less than six months later, his status on the prison system’s website has changed to “not in BOP custody.” Kotey’s present whereabouts are unknown.
According to BOP spokesman Donald Murphy, ‘Alexanda Amon Kotey is not presently in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.’
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He went on to say that there are “several reasons” why an inmate could be labelled as “not in the system,” but he didn’t say why Kotey was given that label.
‘Inmates who were previously in BOP custody and have not completed their sentence may be released for a period of time for court hearings, medical treatment, or other reasons,’ Mr Murphy explained.
The BOP does not divulge detailed information about an individual for “safety, security, or privacy reasons,” the official added.
A prisoner may be described as being “not in BOP custody” for a variety of reasons, such as being in transit, awaiting processing, being moved to a halfway home, or having been released on parole (unlikely in the case of Kotey as he is serving a life sentence). Kotey might have been sent abroad to aid in an investigation into a different case.
Approximately two dozen Westerners were held hostage as part of a hostage-taking plot orchestrated by Kotey, a member of the so-called “Beatles” terror organisation, a decade ago. Due to their English accents, the hostages called them the Beatles.
Because the Beatles were so cruel and often appeared in masks, the hostages grew to fear their appearance. Their propaganda videos depicting victims being paraded before being beheaded while wearing orange jumpsuits appalled the entire world.
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27 persons are thought to have been kidnapped and killed by the organisation. Four Americans and two Britons, including relief worker David Haines, were among those killed.
After being taken prisoner by Kurdish militants in Syria in January 2018, Kotey was tried in America.
In 2020, he was turned over to US forces in Iraq, where he was put on trial in the US for the murders of four American hostages: the reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as the humanitarian workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.