(AFP) Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday against an alleged member of the notorious Islamic State kidnap-and-murder cell known as the “Beatles.”
El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, declined the opportunity to testify in his own defense at his trial in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Asked by Judge T.S. Ellis if he wanted to take the stand, Elsheikh said “No,” the first time his voice had been heard during the two-week trial.
Elsheikh is charged with the murders of American freelance journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig, and suspected of the kidnapping of nearly 20 other Westerners in Syria.
Ten European journalists, relief workers and Syrians held hostage by the “Beatles” have testified over the past few days of their brutal treatment at their captors’ hands.
