Briton's lawyers try to restrict evidence from ISIS slave

El Shafee Elsheikh allegedly said slavery was justified under Islamic law

A court sketch of El Shafee Elsheikh during an online hearing in a court in Virginia, the US, on Wednesday. Reuters

Defence lawyers for a Briton accused of helping ISIS to torture and behead American hostages are trying to block evidence from a Kurdish girl who was kept as a slave.

The girl, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, was kidnapped at the age of 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by ISIS.

She spent weeks in captivity with American Kayla Mueller, whose death at the hands of ISIS will be a key issue at this month’s trial.

El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with playing a key role in Ms Mueller’s abduction, ransom and eventual death, and the deaths of three other Americans — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig.

In court papers filed late on Tuesday, Elsheikh’s lawyers say Jane Doe was told after her abduction to forget about her family because she would be “selected for marriage” by an ISIS fighter.

Ms Doe escaped but was caught the next morning and beaten with sticks, belts and hoses. It was then that she was taken to the prison where Ms Mueller was also held, the defence memo said.

After a month, they and two other girls were taken into captivity by a senior ISIS leader named Abu Sayyaf. They were locked in a bedroom when they were not cleaning or gardening.

Ms Doe escaped the home in October 2014 and made her way back into Kurdish custody.

Information she provided helped US fighters to launch a raid in May 2015 that killed Abu Sayyaf and other ISIS fighters, the memo said.

Ms Mueller, who was killed in February 2015, was raped by ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi during her time in captivity, the indictment read.

Inside the house, US fighters recovered ISIS documents justifying slavery and guidelines for how it should be implemented.

Elsheikh’s lawyers are seeking to keep the slavery documents from being introduced at the trial, and want to severely limit Ms Doe’s testimony, restricting it only to her time in captivity with Ms Mueller.

Iraqi government forces and allied militias take a position in the northern part of Diyala province as part of an assault to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS, on March 2, 2015. All photos: AFP

Members of the Iraqi paramilitary Popular Mobilisation units flash the 'V' for victory sign after regaining control of the village of Albu Ajil, near Tikrit, on March 9, 2015.

Fighters from a Popular Mobilisation unit take part in an exercise during their graduation ceremony in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, on April 9, 2015.

Iraqi fighters of the Shiite group Asaib Ahl Al Haq (The League of the Righteous) stand guard outside their headquarters on May 18, 2015, in the mainly Shiite southern city of Basra, as Shiite militias converged on Ramadi in a bid to recapture it from ISIS.

Iraqi government forces and members of the Popular Mobilisation units raise their weapons on the front line during battles with ISIS on the road leading to Saqlawiya, in Iraq's Anbar province, on August 4, 2015.

An Iraqi Shiite fighter cleans his weapon on his vehicle at the petrochemical plant in the town of Baiji, north of Tikrit, on October 16, 2015.

Iraqi Shiite fighters fire a rocket during a military operation against ISIS as they advance towards the centre of Baiji, about 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, on October 19, 2015.

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitaries advance in a desert area near the village of Tall Abtah, south-west of Mosul, on November 28, 2016, during a broad offensive by Iraq forces to retake Mosul from ISIS.

An Iraqi Shiite fighter from the Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary forces inspects an underground tunnel in the town of Tal Abtah, south of Tal Afar, on December 10, 2016.

Iraqi pro-government forces advance towards the Unesco-listed ancient city of Hatra, south-west of Mosul, during an offensive to retake the area from ISIS fighters, on April 26, 2017.

A fighter from the Hashed Al Sahaabi units helps displaced people who fled from battles to oust ISIS from Hawija cross a river in the area of Zarga, about 35km south-east of Kirkuk, on October 4, 2017.

Iraqi forces advance towards the city of al-Qaim, in Iraq's western Anbar province near the Syrian border, as they fight against remnant pockets of ISIS forces, on November 3, 2017.

Iraqi forces ride in the back of pick-up trucks during the advance through Anbar province in the western desert bordering Syria, on November 25, 2017, to flush out remaining ISIS fighters in the region.

Members of the Iraqi forces and the Hashed Al Shaabi carry their firearms as they stand on an infanty-fighting vehicle near the Iraqi-Syrian border, about 80km west of the border town of al-Qaim, on December 9, 2017.

Abbas Hamza Hassan, a 56-year-old Iraqi fighter, is pictured on November 13, 2018 while training fellow Hashed members how to use weapons in the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

The evidence “is unduly inflammatory and would only cause undue prejudice against Mr Elsheikh, confuse the issues, and mislead the jury by imputing the actions of others to Mr Elsheikh", defence lawyers Nina Ginsberg, Edward MacMahon and Jessica Carmichael wrote.

While Ms Doe’s evidence may not be central to the case against Elsheikh, it provides a glimpse into some of the emotionally powerful evidence jurors will confront if the case goes to trial at the end of the month.

Elsheikh is one of four British nationals – nicknamed The Beatles by their alleged captives because of their accents – who allegedly joined ISIS.

Elsheikh and a co-defendant, Alexenda Kotey, were captured in Syria in 2018 and taken to Virginia in 2020 to stand trial in a federal court.

Kotey pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing. A third Beatle, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John”, was killed in a 2015 drone strike. The fourth member was sentenced to prison in Turkey.

Federal prosecutors will respond to the defence memo about Ms Doe at a later date. So far, though, prosecutors have been successful in turning aside defence efforts to restrict evidence at trial.

The presiding judge, TS Ellis III, ruled this year that prosecutors could use allegedly incriminating statements Elsheikh made in interrogations and in media interviews. Defence lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the statements were coerced.

As for the slavery documents, defence lawyers argue that it would be unfair to ascribe them to Elsheikh because he did not write them.

But in a 2018 interview with journalist Jenan Moussa after he was captured, Elsheikh allegedly said slavery was justified under Islamic law.

“Islamic texts have spoken about slavery and rights of a slave," he was alleged to have said in an interview.

"There is a whole jurisprudence about slavery and the rights of slaves and the rights of slave owners."