One of the 'ISIS Beatles' who is serving a life sentence for the torture and murder of American hostages has gone missing from the US prison system, according to reports. Alexanda Kotey, 39, is no longer in the high-security Canaan prison in Pennsylvania, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons data. It is not known how and when he disappeared.
Kotey, a London resident, was sentenced to prison in America last year after entering a guilty plea to eight criminal charges stemming from the kidnapping, torturing, and beheading of Islamic State prisoners in Syria in 2021. It is not known how Kotey disappeared or if he made a jail break.
Mysteriously Disappeared
Kotey's disappearance has now caused outrage and confusion among the family members of his victims, notably the daughter of a British aid worker who he had tortured and killed, according to the Daily Mail. BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy also confirmed to The Scottish Daily Record that "Alexanda Amon Kotey is not currently in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons."
He said that there are "several reasons" why a person can be listed as "not in the system," but he did not say why Kotey was given that designation. "Inmates who were previously in BOP custody and who have not completed their sentence may be outside BOP custody for a period of time for court hearings, medical treatment or for other reasons," Murphy said.
The BOP does not disclose detailed information on an individual owing to "safety, security, or privacy reasons," the official added.
Kotey, a member of the terror group known as "Jihadi George," was sent to Canaan in August after pleading guilty to eight counts of taking hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015 and confessing to all of them.
He accepted a plea bargain that contained "cooperation requirements" and avoided doing his time in Colorado's ADX Florence prison, also known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies."
However, less than six months later, his status on the prison system's website has changed to "not in BOP custody." Kotey's present whereabouts are unknown.
Utter Confusion
Kotey, a member of the so-called "Beatles" terror group took around two dozen Westerners hostage in a hostage-taking plot a decade ago. The hostages called them the Beatles due to their English accents.
The hostages were terrified by their constant mask-wearing and the sadistic behavior they demonstrated. Their propaganda videos, in which the victims were paraded while wearing orange jumpsuits before being beheaded, appalled the entire globe.
At least 27 people are believed to have been kidnapped and killed by the terror outfit. Among those killed were four Americans and two Britons, including humanitarian worker David Haines.
Haines' 24-year-old daughter Bethany Haines told The Record on Wednesday that she thinks Kotey is still in the US penal system. Bethany Haines of Perth believes Kotey is "assisting authorities" and demands that he be sent back to a high-security jail to complete his sentence.
"In the past he has been traceable, as we have access to data via the US victim notification scheme, and we at least had the reassurance that he was in a high security facility," she told the outlet.
"I don't want to think that he has managed to negotiate his way into any kind of easy treatment on the basis of him assisting authorities or anything else."
Kotey revealed to Haines how he had kidnapped her father and had seen him tortured and killed during their face-to-face meeting in Virginia in June of last year. The encounter was a component of a settlement that insured Kotey could be transferred to a UK prison after serving 15 years of his full-life sentence there.
It's not known whether Kotey has been returned to Britain or is still being held in a US prison.
