El Shafee Elsheikh: The ISIS Beatle known as ‘Ringo’, grew up in west London and went to Syria | World News

El Shafee Elsheikh, known to his victims as “Ringo,” grew up in the White City, west London, after his family arrived from Sudan in 1993 when he was five years old.

His father was a communist and part-time poet who worked as a translator and protested against Omar al-Bashir’s Muslim dictatorship in his homeland.

The couple had two other sons but his father split from his mother, two years after they arrived in England.

After finishing school, Elsheikh went to Acton College to study engineering and then worked in a local garage, as well as fixing cars at the fair, visiting Shepherd’s Bush Green.

Elsheikh, known to his friends as “Shaf”, supported the Queen’s Park Rangers football team and spent three years, from the age of 11, with the Cavalry.

In 2008, at the age of 19, he was involved in a fight on the council property where he lived, which left him with multiple stab wounds to his back, hips and torso.

According to the police report, his brother, Khalid, tracked down the attacker, a local drug dealer, and got into a fight that left him bitten off part of his ear.

On Christmas Eve, a 15-year-old friend of Khalid’s Nathan Harris orchestrated the fatal shooting of the shopkeeper, 20-year-old Craig Brown, as he unloaded shopping from the trunk of his car on the premises.

Harris, whose street name is Money, was found guilty of murder. Khalid was acquitted but sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Elsheikh, meanwhile, wears a beard and long black robes, spending his days distributing Islamic literature and perfumes outside Shepherd’s Bush Market.

Read more:
Who is IS ‘Beatle’ El Shafee Elsheikh and what did we find out at his trial?

Elsheikh left the UK on 27 April 2012, while his mother was in Sudan, flying to Malmo in Sweden on Ryanair without a return ticket.

He traveled to nearby Copenhagen in Denmark and then took another flight to Turkey on April 30 and then a third flight to Adana in southern Turkey from where he crossed to Syria. on May 1st.

In Syria, he was known as Abu Thabit, purchased an AK-47 assault rifle and trained with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s organization in Syria, before switching allegiance. with ISIS.

He was joined in Syria, in late August, by his friends from west London, Mohammed Emwazi – who was known as “Jihadi John” – and Alexanda Kotey – known hostage as “George” .”

How the police searched for evidence to link ‘The Beatles’ together

Scotland Yard revealed this week how they identified Elsheikh and Kotey after one of their freed hostages recalled a conversation they had about being captured following a confrontation with the Wing Defense League. British Ownership (EDL).

Police have identified an anti-EDL protest against a march by the radical Islamist group Against the Crusades, to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which began in Great Britain. US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

There were several flashpoints around central London and at around 6.30pm, police were called to the Tyburn house in Marble Arch, where stabbings had taken place and a number of men were arrested on suspicion of involvement. to the attack, including Kotey and Elsheikh.

Police later discovered Elsheikh’s phone number on Emwazi’s phone, which they downloaded when he was charged with a series of bicycle thefts in September 2010.

Another key piece of evidence linking Elsheikh directly to terrorist activity in Syria was the result of officers reviewing new evidence in the second arrest of Khalid Elsheikh, this time in 2014, because of his possess a handgun.

His cell phone contained a voice message from Elsheikh in Syria, which was compared to his police interview from 2009 and matched the recording.

After being detained in Syria, Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, fought a legal battle to try to prevent her son from going to court in the US by preventing Britain from sharing the results of the investigation. The case was eventually dismissed when the US agreed not to impose the death penalty.

Elsheikh pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, conspiracy to murder and material assistance to terrorism but he refused to give evidence and was found guilty after a trial in April.

Kotey pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life in prison.

Emwazi from Queen’s Park, West London, was killed at the age of 27 in an American drone strike on 12 November 2015.