The brother of murdered aid worker David Haines has said that seeing a member of the ISIS Beatles who killed his sibling jailed for life brought him ‘a sense of closure’.
Mike Haines, 51, joined the families of other victims in court in Alexandria, Virginia, last week as Londoner Alexanda Kotey was sentenced for his role in the terror cell’s murder of four hostages.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain yesterday, Mr Haines told hosts Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley how he ‘expected to feel hate and anger’.
He said: ‘I expected to feel anger, I expected to feel hate. When I faced him it was grim satisfaction that he was in a court of law with his rights held up to the highest degree. It was a sense of closure.’
The brother of murdered aid worker David Haines (above) has said that seeing a member of the ISIS Beatles who killed his sibling jailed for life brought him ‘a sense of closure’
Mike Haines, 51, joined the families of other victims in court in Alexandria, Virginia, last week as Londoner Alexanda Kotey (pictured) was sentenced for his role in the terror cell’s murder of four hostages
The group, dubbed The Beatles due to their English accents, was said to be made up of ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, Aine Davis, El Shafee Elsheikh and Kotey.
They were responsible for the brutal killings of a number of Western captives, believed to include Britons Alan Henning and David Haines.
Mr Haines also revealed how the trauma of his brothers execution effectively killed his parents.
‘My mum slowly gave up on life and she slowly faded away until her death,’ he said.
‘My dad…in the 48 hours after I told my parents that David had gone, his dementia got so much worse…again he slowly faded.’
Mr Haines, an RAF veteran and former mental health nurse, previously said he would ‘look forward’ to staring down the so-called Islamic State terrorist.
Mr Haines with his brother David (left) in the late 1990s. David was captured by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid to the war-torn country
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain yesterday, Mr Haines told hosts Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley how he ‘expected to feel hate and anger’
‘In some ways obviously I am quite nervous, and in other ways I am looking forward to staring them in the face, to drawing a line behind what has happened,’ he said.
‘And that is the real reason (for) going out to read my impact statement to the court – to draw a line in the sand and say: “Yes, you have played a big part in my family’s life, you have had a hold on my family’s life. However, now, that stops”.’
Elsheikh, Kotey and Emwazi all knew each other in England before joining IS.
Elsheikh was captured alongside Kotey in Syria in 2018 by the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces while trying to escape to Turkey.
Davis was jailed in Turkey and Emwazi was killed in a drone strike, while Kotey last year pleaded guilty to eight counts relating to his involvement in the hostage plot.
Mr Haines, an RAF veteran and former mental health nurse, previously said he would ‘look forward’ to staring down the so-called Islamic State terrorist
Mr Haines, from Dundee in Scotland, said he would cherish the opportunity to sit down with Kotey and to ‘look him in the eyes and tell him he has been misguided’.
And in an extraordinary demonstration of his rejection of hatred, Mr Haines added: ‘What I would like to hear, although I don’t think it will ever happen, is for Kotey to say: “I’m sorry, what we were doing was wrong.”
‘And if that was to happen, (for him to say) “What we were doing was not about Islam … it was about the spread of terror”, then I would actually shake his hand.’
Mr Haines’ 44-year-old younger brother was captured by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid to the war-torn country.
His murder the following year sent shockwaves around the world when a video recording of his barbaric execution was used as propaganda by the Beatles.
The family still do not know what has happened to the body.