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FALLS CHURCH: Protection attorneys for a British nationwide going through trial later this month for serving to the Daesh group torture and behead American hostages are searching for to dam testimony from a Kurdish lady held as a slave by the group.
The lady, recognized solely as Jane Doe in court docket paperwork, was kidnapped at age 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by Daesh. She spent a number of weeks in captivity with American Kayla Mueller, whose demise by the hands of Daesh will probably be a key subject at trial.
The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with enjoying a key function in Mueller’s abduction, ransom and eventual demise, together with three different Individuals: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and assist employee Peter Kassig.
In court docket papers filed late Tuesday, Elsheikh’s attorneys say Jane Doe was informed after her abduction to neglect about her household as a result of she can be “chosen for marriage” by a Daesh fighter.
Doe escaped, however she was caught the following morning and crushed with sticks, belts and hoses. It was then that she was taken to a jail, the place Mueller was additionally held, in line with the protection memo.
After a month, Doe, Mueller, and two different ladies have been taken into captivity by a senior Daesh chief named Abu Sayyaf, the place they have been locked in a bed room apart from once they have been cleansing or gardening.
Doe escaped the house in October 2014 and made her approach again into Kurdish custody. Data she offered helped US fighters launch a raid in Could 2015 that killed Abu Sayyaf and different Daesh fighters, in line with the memo.
Mueller, who was killed in February 2015, was raped by Daesh chief, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, throughout her time in captivity, in line with the indictment.
Inside the home, US fighters recovered Daesh paperwork justifying slavery and tips for the way it ought to be applied.
Elsheikh’s attorneys are searching for to maintain the slavery paperwork from being launched at trial, and need to severely restrict Doe’s testimony, limiting it solely to her time in captivity with Mueller.
The proof “is unduly inflammatory and would solely trigger undue prejudice in opposition to Mr. Elsheikh, confuse the problems, and mislead the jury by imputing the actions of others to Mr. Elsheikh,” protection attorneys Nina Ginsberg, Edward MacMahon and Jessica Carmichael wrote.
Whereas Doe’s testimony could not central to the case in opposition to Elsheikh, it supplies a glimpse into among the emotionally highly effective proof jurors will confront if the case certainly goes to trial on the finish of the month.
Elsheikh is certainly one of 4 British nationals who joined Daesh, dubbed “the Beatles” by their captives due to their accents. Elsheikh and a co-defendant, Alexenda Kotey, have been captured in Syria in 2018 and delivered to Virginia in 2020 to face trial in federal court docket.
Kotey pleaded responsible final yr and is awaiting sentencing. A 3rd Beatle, Mohammed Emwazi, also referred to as “Jihadi John,” was killed in a 2015 drone strike. The fourth member was sentenced to jail in Turkey.
Federal prosecutors will reply to the protection memo about Jane Doe at a later date. To this point, although, prosecutors have been profitable in turning apart protection efforts to limit proof at trial. The presiding choose, T.S. Ellis III, dominated earlier this yr that prosecutors can use incriminating statements Elsheikh made in interrogations and in media interviews. Protection attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the statements have been coerced.
As for the slavery paperwork, protection attorneys argue that it could be unfair to ascribe them to Elsheikh as a result of he didn’t write them. However in a 2018 interview with journalist Jenan Moussa after he was captured, Elsheikh mentioned slavery was justified beneath Islamic regulation.
“Islamic texts have spoken about slavery and rights of a slave. There’s a entire jurisprudence about slavery and the rights of slaves and the rights of slave house owners,” he mentioned in an interview.
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