The High Court yesterday rejected a challenge over the Government’s decision to share evidence with the US about two alleged members of the Isis Beatles, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey. Crucially, ministers had provided this evidence without seeking assurances that the pair will not face the death penalty.
The judgement by the Lord Chief Justice in this judicial review is important and will be welcomed with relief by the detectives working on the case at the counter terrorism command at Scotland Yard, the CPS lawyers and ministers at the Home Office. Had the Government lost, the Home Secretary’s decision not to seek assurances on the death penalty from the US would have handed a propaganda victory to Islamic State. It would also have emboldened foreign terrorist fighters across the world and seriously undermined the UK’s strategy of tackling terrorism through the rule of law.
The families of those brutally murdered would have been left bewildered as two notorious suspected mass murderers walked free, potentially posing a future serious threat – and all because the UK and the US could not agree a way of sharing evidence for a trial.
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