ISIS ‘Beatle’ admits having a gun for ‘terrorism purposes’
A suspected member of the ISIS ‘Beatles’ has pleaded guilty to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two offences of funding terrorism.
Aine Leslie Davis, 39, who was once suspected of being part of the death squad appeared at the Old Bailey today.
He was arrested last year when he arrived back in the UK after spending seven and half years in a Turkish jail for terrorism offences.
It follows a failed attempt by the home secretary to have him sent to the US, it has been reported.
Ahead of his planned Old Bailey trial, Davis’ legal team claimed the case should be thrown out because he could not be tried twice for the same offending.
British authorities were also accused of ‘conniving’ with Turkish counterparts in his deportation in a failed bid by the then-Home Secretary Priti Patel to arrange his onward extradition to the US where two other IS Beatles were tried.
In legal argument, defence lawyer Mark Summers KC noted ‘the spectre’ of suspicion around Davis’s involvement with the Beatles cell from 2014 onwards.
It caused Davis to complain about mistreatment in his Turkish jail after he was interviewed about it by British intelligence officers, the court was told.
Mr Summers said that in July last year, lawyers in the IS Beatles case in Virginia clarified they were not seeking to bring a prosecution against Davis ‘because the evidence was there were only three members and not four members of that cell.’
The barrister claimed Ms Patel veered into ‘Alice in Wonderland territory’ when she phoned authorities in the US begging them to take Davis’s case.
Mr Summers said: ‘The irregular personal involvement of the Home Secretary trying to persuade a foreign country to prosecute a UK national is frankly extraordinary.’
Aine Davis timeline
Suspected ‘Isis Beatle’ Aine Davis became a trans-Atlantic hot potato as lawyers wrestled with the thorny legal issues around how and where he should face justice.
2006: London-born Davis, who has roots in Gambia, meets his wife Amal El-Wahabi at a London mosque and becomes increasingly interested in Islam.
2007: Davis spends time living in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. According to El-Wahabi, he had a history of drug dealing and went abroad to get away from bad influences.
July 2013: The Muslim convert leaves the UK to pursue a jihadist cause in Syria.
November 26 2013: Davis sends El-Wahabi a picture of himself in Syrian woods posing with a man holding a Kalashnikov rifle.
November 27 2013: Davis sends a group photograph with 13 other people holding guns aloft.
January 2014: El-Wahabi’s friend Nawal Msaad is stopped at Heathrow airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul and found to be carrying 20,000 euro (£15,830) in rolled-up notes.
Summer 2014: El-Wahabi goes on trial at the Old Bailey accused of attempting to send Davis the money to fund terrorism. She is found guilty and Msaad, who was “hoodwinked” by her friend to act as a courier, is acquitted.
November 2014: Mother-of-two El-Wahabi is jailed for 28 months and seven days. Judge Nicholas Hilliard says it is clear that Davis went to Syria to fight under the black flag of Isis and El-Wahabi was “infatuated” with him.
2015: Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, the ringleader of the murderous Beatles IS cell, is killed in a US drone strike.
November 12 2015: Davis and others are arrested in Istanbul by the Turkish authorities on suspicion of being members of an armed terrorist group, namely the so-called Islamic State.
Davis is using a forged travel document.
May 9 2017: Davis is convicted in Turkey of membership of a proscribed organisation with firearms and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
2018: Two IS Beatles cell members, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are captured in Syria. They are later handed eight life sentences in the United States.
2019: Suspected fourth cell member Davis is visited in his Turkish prison by a British intelligence officers who asked him about The Beatles. Afterwards, Davis claims he was mistreated in prison.
May 2021: A draft extradition request for Davis is drawn up but allegedly rejected in favour of deportation by July.
June 2022: British officials learned that prosecutors in New York are seeking to extradite Davis to the US.
June 30 2022: A report is published in British media that Davis is to be deported and citing legal sources advising the British government – ahead of the official announcement in Turkey.
July 2022: Prosecutors in Virginia clarify that they are not looking to put him on trial as a member of The Beatles cell, saying there were only three members.
Then-home secretary Priti Patel allegedly appeals – unsuccessfully – to US authorities for Davis to be prosecuted there in an apparent plan to extradite him on following his deportation from Turkey.
Davis is transferred to an immigration detention centre where he is visited by a consular official who repeatedly attempts to persuade him to return to Britain voluntarily – without success.
August 2022: Davis is deported to Britain and detained by counter-terrorism police on his arrival at Luton airport.
March 2023: Davis is due to stand trial at the Old Bailey accused of arranging terrorist funding from abroad and having a gun with terrorist intent.
His lawyer Mark Summers KC argues he has effectively been convicted and served his time in Turkey for his activities in Syria. He accuses British authorities of having “ulterior” motives and “conniving” to get him back with a view to onward extradition to the US.
October 2023: Davis pleads guilty to having a firearm for terrorist purposes and two terrorism funding charges after unsuccessfully applying to the Court of Appeal.
The prosecution disputed the defence claims which were rejected by Judge Mark Lucraft and later by the Court of Appeal.
On Monday, Davis returned to the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and two charges of funding terrorism between 2013 and 2014.
The defendant entered his pleas via video link from Belmarsh prison.
Judge Lucraft adjourned sentencing until November 13.
The offences were largely uncovered from his communications with his then-wife, mother-of-two Amal El-Wahabi, 36, who stayed behind in north London living on benefits.
Davis, who used the name Hamza after converting to Islam, was born in the capital and spent time living in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates in 2007.
He met El-Wahabi at a London mosque and they became increasingly interested in Islam.
In July 2013, he travelled to Syria but maintained regular contact with El-Wahabi by phone and internet.
He went on to enlist her in a plan to send him cash by hoodwinking her friend Nawal Masaad, 36, to act as a courier on the promise of 1,000 euros.
Ms Masaad, from Holloway, north London, was stopped at Heathrow Airport on January 16 2014 as she was about to board a flight to Istanbul with 20,000 euros stuffed inside her tights.
The prosecution alleged the money raised in the UK was destined to support Davis’s terrorist cause in Syria.
Following El-Wahabi’s arrest in London, police uncovered a stash of terrorist propaganda said to have been left behind by Davis when he went to Syria.
On her mobile phone was a picture sent by Davis in November 2013 in Syrian woods with a man holding a Kalashnikov rifle.
Davis told his wife: ‘Don’t show this to anyone but yuyu. (sic). I mean it.’
He sent another picture posing with 13 others in military-style clothes, all with guns held aloft.
Asked by El-Wahabi if he was doing anything exciting, Davis said he was just ‘on point’, which is believed to be a reference to guard duty.
The court heard it was clear that Davis – who had convictions for possession of drugs and gun possession – had gone to Syria to fight under the black flag of IS and that he was preoccupied with martyrdom.
Giving evidence in her trial, El-Wahabi claimed Davis was ‘always there’ for her and had left the country ‘to get away from everyone and to look for work’.
He was unhappy in London because of ‘the drugs, the influence of friends he has around him, the police targeting him constantly’, she said.
She added: ‘With him, his problem is he is always being watched.’
After the Old Bailey trial in 2014, El-Wahabi was found guilty of funding terrorism and jailed for 28 months, while Ms Masaad was cleared of wrongdoing.
El-Wahabi was the first person to be convicted of funding terrorism in Syria.
In November 2015, Davis was arrested with others in Istanbul after being found using a forged travel document and later jailed for IS membership.
Davis has always denied being connected with The Beatles cell – so-called because of their British accents – which tortured and beheaded western hostages in Syria.
Davis travelled to the Middle East in 2013 as the radical group was sweeping across Iraq and Syria.
The cell earned its nickname as their British accents gave away their nationality, despite efforts to protect their identities.
Authorities believe they guarded and tortured two dozen hostages, some of whom were executed, including by beheading.
Davis was radicalised in prison after being jailed for drug and gun offences in 2006.
He changed his name to Hamza and became acquainted with Mohammed Emwazi, the man who would go on to be nicknamed Jihadi John by the media.
Emwazi, who attended the same London mosque as Davis, was killed by a drone strike in Syria in 2015.
Two other members of the group were captured and put before judges in the US.
In October 2020, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey were brought to the United States to face charges of beheading Western hostages.
Elsheikh denied being a member of ‘the Beatles’ but admitted joining the ISIL terrorist group.
In April last year, after a three-week trial, he was found guilty of lethal hostage taking and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to eight life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.