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El Shafee Elsheikh, the Daesh/ISIS terrorist who was part of a group known as the "Beatles," was sentenced on Friday in US court to eight consecutive life terms in prison for torturing and murdering four American nationals.
"With today's verdict, we finally have a bit of justice,"Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, one of the Beatles' victims, said at a news conference after the sentence was handed down.
"I think there's a relief, you know, this has been quite an ordeal that's truly exhausting," she continued.
The other three victims were Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
The three American men – Foley, Sotloff and Kassig – were beheaded while in captivity, and the terror group released propaganda videos of their executions online, setting off a frantic search to identify the group of masked men who were dubbed the "Beatles" due to their British accents.
Elsheikh – who was born in the UK but stripped of his citizenship there after he was identified – was nicknamed "Ringo."
"Today is the eighth anniversary of our son Jim's gruesome beheading by ISIS," said Foley's mother. "But today we remember four extraordinary young Americans."
Mueller was raped multiple times by ex-Daesh/ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before her death.
"This is a small piece of justice that will help us heal a little, but I don't think there will ever be closure," said Kayla's father Carl Mueller.
A federal judge sentenced Elsheikh to a life sentence for each of the eight counts he was convicted of in April.
The death penalty was taken off the table as part of a deal the US struck with the UK to get the case tried in the US.
The surviving hostages testified during the trial that the "Beatles" would rewrite the Eagles' song "Hotel California" as "Hotel Osama" and would make them sing the refrain, "You will never leave."
More than 20 hostages were taken captive from 2012 to 2015 when Daesh/ISIS controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
"These brave Americans saw the suffering of the Syrian people and decided to help, whether it was by providing humanitarian aid or by telling the world about the tragic Syrian crisis," said Foley. "They've left a legacy of profound moral courage." -
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