ISIS 'Beatle' faces Old Bailey trial on Feb 27

Aine Davis, an alleged member of the Islamic State (IS) group’s ‘Beatles’ cell will face trial in the UK on terrorism charges at the Old Bailey this month.

Davis, 38, who grew up and was radicalised in London, is accused of belonging to the notorious IS cell, nicknamed the “Beatles" by their hostages because of their distinctive British accents.

Active in Syria from 2012 to 2015, the cell was allegedly involved in abducting more than two dozen journalists and relief workers from the US and other countries.

Davis will go on trial on February 27 at the Old Bailey criminal court in London, judge Mark Lucraft said on Monday as he extended Davis’s detention in custody to March 3. He faces two charges related to providing money for terrorist purposes and one of possessing a firearm for a purpose connected to terrorism.

Davis was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and sentenced to seven and half years for membership of IS in 2017. He was released in July last year and deported from Turkey the next month. He was then arrested when he arrived at Britain’s Luton airport.

Prior to being radicalised, Davis was convicted on drugs offences and was jailed in 2006 for possessing a firearm.

In 2014, his wife Amal El-Wahabi became the first person in Britain to be convicted of funding IS jihadists after trying to send money 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.

Two of the “Beatles", El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, have received life sentences in the United States. Both men were stripped of their British citizenship in 2018. Another, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed by a US drone in Syria in November 2015.