11 January 2023 , 20:30
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The daughter of murdered British aid worker David Haines has told of her fury after the Islamic State terrorist who abducted him vanished from the US prison system.
Bethany Haines, 24, whose father was beheaded in Syria, has had to seek reassurance from US justice sources that IS “Beatle” Alexanda Kotey was still detained somewhere in America.
It came after the Mirror highlighted to victims’ relatives that Kotey, 39, is no longer in the custody of the US federal corrections system, Bureau of Prisons.
Bethany of Perth had a face-to-face meeting with Kotey last year in which he told her he had abducted her dad and witnessed his torture and murder.
Bethany with her dad David in 2011 (Collect)Kotey of Paddington, West London, was sent to the notorious Canaan prison in Pennsylvania last August after admitting charges including conspiracy to commit hostage-taking resulting in death and conspiracy to murder.
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The jihadist accepted a plea deal that included “cooperation requirements”, and was rewarded by avoiding the ADX Florence prison known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.
After hearing he has vanished from the prison system, Bethany said: “I don’t want to think he’s managed to negotiate his way into easy treatment on the basis of assisting authorities or anything else.
“In the past he has been traceable, as we have access to data via the US victim notification scheme, and we at least had the reassurance that he was in a high-security facility.
Bethany Haines, daughter of beheaded David Haines, is demanding answers (Reach plc)“The last we heard he was in a maximum security jail renowned for violence, and I was fine with that. If he suffers in any way while he’s in jail I’m fine with that, given what he did to my father. I just don’t think it’s right he can disappear from the system and the families whose lives were devastated by his actions are left to wonder where he is.”
The four “Beatles” – so called by hostages due to their British accents – are believed to have abducted and killed 27 people, targeting humanitarian aid workers. Those killed include David and fellow British volunteer Alan Henning in 2013, and Americans Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
Kotey agreed to a meeting with Bethany in Virginia last June as part of a deal that would mean he could be transferred to a UK jail after 15 years to serve the rest of his full-life term here.
Kotey posing for a mugshot in an undisclosed location (Syrian Democratic Forces/AFP via)Bethany said: “I am all for prisons rehabilitating offenders, but when I looked into his eyes I realised there will be no rehabilitating a man like that.
“He refused to apologise for what he did to my dad. He did make an apology in a roundabout way for the ongoing suffering that my family has to endure, but he couldn’t find it within himself to say he was sorry for kidnapping, torturing and beheading my father.”
Bethany believes he is still in the US penal system, “the most likely [explanation] being he is offering assistance to authorities”. She said: “I’m aware of the saying in prison circles that ‘snitches get ditches’ – if that’s the case it will be a situation he brought on himself.”
It is understood the family of Alan Henning from Salford, Greater Manchester – who was also beheaded – have also urged the US to reveal the terrorist’s current whereabouts.
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Bureau of Prisons spokesman Donald Murphy confirmed the jihadist was not in BOP custody, adding there were several reasons why he may no longer show up in databases.
Kotey was captured in Syria in 2018, with fellow Beatle El Shafee Elsheikh, 34. Elsheikh was handed eight life sentences in August and is now in a US maximum security prison. Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, was killed in Syria in a US airstrike in 2015. Suspected Beatle Aine Davis is being held in the UK awaiting trial.