WASHINGTON: A US Judge has sentenced a British-born former member of the ISIL (ISIS) cell known as “the Beatles” to life in prison, months after the defendant pleaded guilty to several counts of lethal hostage-taking and other charges.
The sentence, handed against Alexanda Kotey by Judge TS Ellis in a courtroom in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, on Friday was a foregone conclusion.
But the ex-ISIL member’s lawyers had asked the court to recommend that Kotey not serve his sentence in a maximum-security prison where he would be in near-total isolation.
The judge granted the defence’s request, citing Kotey’s complying conduct since he has been in US custody in 2019, “strongly” recommending that prison authorities should not confine him at the Florence ADX maximum-security prison in Colorado. –Agencies
