On Friday, El Shafee Elsheikh was formally sentenced to life in prison for leading in the beheading deaths of American hostages.
Elsheikh, aka “Beatle, is considered the most notorious and highest-ranking member of the Islamic State group ever to be convicted in a U.S. court.
U.S. District Court imposed the sentence in Alexandria.
Earlier, the suspect and his British counterparts, Alexanda Kotey and Mohammed Emwazi led an Islamic State hostage-taking scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade ago.
The hostages tagged them as “Beatles” because of their accents. Their appearance, always in masks, invoked dread among the hostages for the sadism they displayed.
“This prosecution unmasks the barbaric and sadistic ISIS Beatles,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh.
According to reports, the life sentence is a foregone conclusion after a jury convicted him of hostage-taking resulting in death and other crimes earlier this year.
The U.S. government agreed not to pursue a death sentence as part of a deal that ensured the extradition of Elsheikh and his friend, Kotey, who has already been sentenced to life. Emwazi was killed in a drone strike.
The conviction centers on the deaths of four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller.
All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings circulated online. Mueller was forced into slavery and raped by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi multiple times before she was killed.
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