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A French journalist held by ISIS testified Wednesday that he and different hostages had been pressured by their captors to sing a wicked parody of the Eagles track “Lodge California” referred to as “Lodge Osama.”
“It was terrifying for us, a joke for them,” Nicolas Henin mentioned on the Arlington, Virginia trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a 33-year-old former British nationwide.
Elsheikh is accused of involvement within the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and help employees Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
Henin is one in every of a number of former hostages who’ve testified on the trial in federal courtroom of the alleged member of the infamous ISIS kidnap-and-murder cell referred to as the “Beatles.”
Henin mentioned the phrases to “Lodge Osama” included the unique lyrics from “Lodge California” about checking in however by no means leaving, however with a twist.
“If you happen to attempt, you may die Mr. Bigley type,” the lyrics went, a reference to British engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was beheaded in 2004 by Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, head of the al Qaeda terror community in Iraq.
Henin mentioned he was captured in June 2013 on his fifth reporting journey to Syria.
He was held alone for 2 days in a rest room however managed to flee by breaking bars on the home windows with a brush.
After operating the entire night time, he arrived at a village at daybreak and spoke to 2 males in pajamas.
“Sadly they had been ISIS fighters,” he mentioned.
Returned to captivity, he was crushed and brought exterior and “hung within the air for a few hours” along with his arms and toes chained collectively.
“Certain I will die”
Henin was later positioned with different hostages together with Frenchman Pierre Torres and Danish photographer Daniel Rye Ottenson.
British help employee David Haines and Italian aid employee Federico Motka arrived later.
After being taken to a different jail, three guards arrived sooner or later talking with British accents.
Haines and Motka informed the opposite hostages they had been the “Beatles,” Henin mentioned, utilizing the nickname given to the jihadist jailers due to their British accents.
“They had been terrified,” he mentioned of Haines and Motka. “Shaking.”
They had been later joined by Sotloff, Foley, John Cantlie, a British journalist captured with Foley, Toni Neukirch, a German citizen, and 5 Docs With out Borders (MSF) employees.
He mentioned the Beatles would come round a couple of times per week, “generally for a spherical of beatings.”
After his launch in April 2014, Henin offered the authorities with info that was utilized in a rescue try.
“I spent a very long time with businesses, describing the placement, giving particulars to the individual accountable for making ready the raid,” Henin mentioned.
The U.S.-led rescue mission was launched on July 4, 2014 however the hostages had been taken elsewhere simply days earlier.
“That they had been moved previous to the operation,” mentioned Robert Daniel Story, an FBI particular agent who was concerned in preparations for the raid and took the witness stand after Henin.
“We had been very disillusioned,” Story mentioned.
The “Beatles” held no less than 27 overseas hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015.
Numerous European journalists and help employees had been launched after ransoms had been paid however the Individuals — Foley, Sotloff and Kassig — had been killed and movies of their murders launched by IS for propaganda functions.
Kassig’s father learn the letter his son wrote in 2014 from the witness stand.
“Dad, I am paralyzed right here. I am afraid to battle again. A part of me nonetheless has hope. A part of me is bound I will die,” he wrote to his father, Ed Kassig.
The lengthy, handwritten letter was delivered to his household by a launched hostage.
“Don’t fret Dad, if I do go down I will not go considering something however what I do know to be true, that you just and Mother love me greater than the moon!” Peter Kassig wrote.
Kayla Mueller was reportedly handed over to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who allegedly raped her repeatedly earlier than killing her.
Elsheikh and one other former British nationwide, Alexanda Amon Kotey, had been captured in January 2018 by a Kurdish militia in Syria.
They had been turned over to U.S. forces in Iraq and flown to Virginia in 2020 to face prices of hostage-taking, conspiracy to homicide U.S. residents and supporting a overseas terrorist group.
Kotey pleaded responsible in September 2021 and is dealing with life in jail.
“Beatles” executioner Mohamed Emwazi was killed by a U.S. drone in Syria in 2015, whereas the fourth member of the cell, Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey after being convicted of terrorism.
Elsheikh has denied the costs, and his attorneys declare his arrest is a case of mistaken identification.
The Related Press contributed reporting.
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