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Alexanda Kotey pleaded guilty in September to participating in a hostage scheme that resulted in the deaths of American, Japanese and British citizens in Syria. As part of his appeal, Coty will be relocated to the UK where members of his family live to spend the rest of his tenure after spending 15 years in the US.
“You get a life sentence,” Ellis said, for what he called “the most serious crimes that can be committed.”
After the sentencing, Ellis said he hopes it serves as a deterrent to terrorist groups in the future. “We don’t give up,” Ellis said of the US government. “We will look for you. We will find you.”
Before the verdict was pronounced, 12 family members of the victims and two former hostages of the group made agonizing statements in court about their loss and the continuing struggle in the aftermath of the tragedy – at times speaking directly to Coty and the co-accused. Al-Shafi’i Sheikhwho was indicted by a jury in the same courtroom weeks earlier.
The two men sat in the courtroom to hear the family’s statements.
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