LONDON: A British man accused of being part of an Islamic State (IS) kidnap-and-murder cell known as the “Beatles” was arrested on his return to the UK on Wednesday, reports said.
Aine Davis, 38, was arrested after landing at Luton airport on a flight from Turkey, where he had been serving a prison sentence for terrorism offences, according to BBC News and other UK outlets.
He was allegedly a member of the IS cell, which held dozens of foreign hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015 and was known to their captives as the “Beatles” because of their British accents.
The Metropolitan Police, which leads anti-terror investigations in the UK, said in a statement that officers had arrested a man at Luton airport.
But the London force, which does not name suspects until they are charged with a crime, did not name the person being held.
“The 38-year-old man was arrested this evening after he arrived in the UK on a flight from Turkey,” the statement said.
The Met added he was arrested under several different sections of British anti-terrorism laws and taken to a south London police station “where he currently remains in police custody”.
The interior ministry said in a statement that a British national had been deported from Turkey to the UK.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while police enquiries are ongoing,” it added.
Two convicted in US
The four members of the “Beatles” are accused of abducting at least 27 journalists and relief workers from the United States, Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
They were all allegedly involved in the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
The quartet allegedly tortured and killed the four American victims, including by beheading, and IS released videos of the murders for propaganda purposes.
Alexanda Kotey, a 38-year-old former British national extradited from the UK to the US in 2020 to face charges there, pleaded guilty to his role in the deaths last September and was sentenced to life in prison in April.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, another former British national also extradited to the US at the same time, was found guilty of all charges in April, and will be sentenced next week.
The other “Beatles” executioner, Mohamed Emwazi, was killed by a US drone in Syria in 2015.
Elsheikh and Kotey were captured in January 2018 by a Kurdish militia in Syria and turned over to US forces in Iraq before being sent to Britain.
They were eventually flown to Virginia in 2020 to face charges of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
Davis served a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in Turkey for membership in the terrorist group, according to reports.
In 2014, his wife Amal El-Wahabi became the first person in Britain to be convicted of funding IS jihadists after trying to send 20,000 euros — worth $25,000 at the time — to him in Syria.
She was jailed for 28 months and seven days following a trial in which Davis was described as a drug dealer before he went to Syria to fight with IS.
