Who is El Shafee Elsheikh? ISIS ‘Beatle’ sentenced to life in prison for killing US hostages

On Friday, El Shafee Elsheikh, a British man accused of being a violent ISIS terrorist, was awarded eight life sentences for reportedly participating in the murder of four Americans.

As per CBS, El Shafee Elsheikh, a British national of Sudanese origin, was part of an ISIS cell called The Beatles, as all four members were from England. Jihadi Ringo, after the famous drummer, was his moniker among the British media.

According to ABC, El Shafee Elsheikh and the other Beatles had a reputation among ISIS operatives for being more ruthless than their Syrian counterparts, allegedly taking part in various torture and beheading cases.

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El Shafee Elsheikh and his gang were known for demanding huge ransoms

As per the Daily Bhaskar, due to the unprecedented brutality of El Shafee Elsheikh's cell, they were reportedly removed from guard duty by their ISIS superiors.

Fox reported that members of the cell had, at various points, kidnapped at least 23 foreign hostages. They are also accused of having collected exorbitant ransoms from their kidnapped victims.

Among their victims was James Foley, an American video reporter and journalist who was reportedly beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi, the leader of the Beatles, known as Jihadi John.

In an interview with CNN, Diane Foley, James Foley's mother, told the outlet that before her son's death, The Beatles demanded 100 million euros in return for his release.

Diane Foley said:

“Their requests were impossible for us, 100 million Euros, or all Muslim prisoners to be freed."

She added:

"The requests from the terrorists were totally directed towards the government, really. And yet we as an American family had to figure out how to answer them.”

Raj Parekh, a First Assistant US attorney, told the court that The Beatles were also capable of horrific torture.

He said:

"To paraphrase a line in Dante's Inferno, 'we lack the vocabulary of such pain."

According to the Guardian, El Shafee Elshee was convicted of the murders of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller.

In an interview with the Washington Post, a former ISIS member told reporters that due to their roots in Britain, ISIS would publicize the executions perpetrated by the Beatles to recruit more people from the West.

He said:

“(They wanted to) project the image that a European, or a Western person, killed an American so that they can ... appeal to others outside Syria, and make them feel that they belong to the same cause.”

According to BBC, The Beatles are no longer an active cell. While the leader, Emwazi or "Jihadi John," was killed in a missile strike conducted by the US and British militaries, the three other suspected members were supposedly arrested.