Defense lawyers seek to restrict testimony from ISIS ‘slave’

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Protection legal professionals for a British nationwide going through trial later this month for serving to the Islamic State group torture and behead American hostages are looking 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 the Islamic State. She spent a number of weeks in captivity with American Kayla Mueller, whose dying by the hands of the Islamic State might be a key challenge at trial.

The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with taking part in a key position in Mueller’s abduction, ransom and eventual dying, together with three different People: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and support employee Peter Kassig.

In court docket papers filed late Tuesday, Elsheikh’s legal professionals say Jane Doe was advised after her abduction to overlook about her household as a result of she could be “chosen for marriage” by an ISIS fighter.

Doe escaped, however she was caught the subsequent 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 keeping with the protection memo.

After a month, Doe, Mueller, and two different women have been taken into captivity by a senior ISIS chief named Abu Sayyaf, the place they have been locked in a bed room aside from after they have been cleansing or gardening.

Doe escaped the house in October 2014 and made her method again into Kurdish custody. Data she supplied helped U.S. fighters launch a raid in Could 2015 that killed Abu Sayyaf and different ISIS fighters, in keeping with the memo.

Mueller, who was killed in February 2015, was raped by the Islamic State’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, throughout her time in captivity, in keeping with the indictment.

Inside the home, U.S. fighters recovered ISIS paperwork justifying slavery and pointers for the way it ought to be applied.

Elsheikh’s legal professionals are looking for to maintain the slavery paperwork from being launched at trial, and wish to severely restrict Doe’s testimony, proscribing it solely to her time in captivity with Mueller.

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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 legal professionals 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 a few of the emotionally highly effective proof jurors will confront if the case certainly goes to trial on the finish of the month.

Elsheikh is one in every of 4 British nationals who joined the Islamic State, 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 dropped at Virginia in 2020 to face trial in federal court docket.

Kotey pleaded responsible final 12 months and is awaiting sentencing. A 3rd Beatle, Mohammed Emwazi, also called “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 date, 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 12 months that prosecutors can use incriminating statements Elsheikh made in interrogations and in media interviews. Protection legal professionals argued unsuccessfully that the statements have been coerced.

As for the slavery paperwork, protection legal professionals 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 below 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 homeowners,” he mentioned in an interview.