- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^46) World
British-born
Islamic State
member jailed
for life in US
David Smith
Alexandria, Virginia
A member of an Islamic State group
that beheaded western hostages in
Iraq and Syria has been sentenced to
life in prison in the US.
Alexanda Kotey, 38, originally from
Paddington, London, stood motion-
less as the judge, Thomas Selby Ellis,
delivered his verdict at Alexandria
district court, Virginia, while mem-
bers of his victims’ families watched.
Kotey – one of a group nicknamed
“the Beatles” for their British accents
- was given a life sentence for each of
the eight counts to which he pleaded
guilty. They are to run concurrently.
Ellis described his conduct as
“egregious, violent and inhumane ”.
Speaking of Kotey’s victims, Ellis
said: “These were not prisoners of
war, these weren’t soldiers in the
fi eld. They were soldiers but they
were soldiers for good.”
Kotey pleaded guilty last year to
terrorism off ences. He was stripped
of UK citizenship.
The judge noted that, under a plea
bargain, the government ha d com-
mitted to seek Kotey’s transfer to
the UK after 15 years. “That’s a pretty
major plus for you,” Ellis remarked.
The court heard 13 impact state-
ments from members of the victims’
families including those of the British
humanitarians Alan Henning and
David Haines. Ellis, who became
audibly emotional himself after the
statements , said: “It should be a
reminder of what we knew about the
hostages. Countries celebrate heroes
and we should celebrate these indi-
viduals who demonstrated courage,
purpose and compassion under the
most diffi cult of circumstances. ”
Jennifer Rankin
Brussels
The head of the EU border agency
Frontex has resigned after he was
investigated by the union’s anti-
fraud agency amid numerous reports
of its complicity in illegal pushbacks
of asylum seekers.
Fabrice Leggeri , who has been crit-
icised by the European parliament for
failure to protect the human rights
of people seeking asylum in the EU,
announced his resignation shortly
before Frontex’s management board
was to decide whether to take disci-
plinary action against him.
In a statement yesterday Frontex
confi rmed Leggeri and two other
staff members had been investi-
gated by the European Anti-Fraud
Offi ce (Olaf ) without elaborating on
alleged wrongdoing. Leggeri had
been given the chance to comment
on the Olaf report at a special meeting
of the board on Thursday, where he
announced his resignation, Frontex
said. “The management board took
note of his intentions and concluded
that the employment has therefore
come to an end,” the statement said.
In a copy of his resignation let-
ter seen by the Guardian, Leggeri
said: “I give my mandate back to
the management board as it seems
that the Frontex mandate on which
I have been elected and renewed in
June 2019 has silently but eff ectively
been changed.”
The letter was dated the same
day as an international consortium
of journalists, including the Guard-
ian, revealed that Frontex’s databaseshowed it was involved in illegal
pushbacks , forcing asylum seekers
trying to enter Greece back to Turkey.
But it was the investigation by
Olaf that triggered his resignation.
It called for disciplinary action
against Leggeri and two other Fron-
tex offi cials, two EU sources told the
Guardian. One of the sources said
Leggeri was accused of covering up
human rights violations.
Separately, the German Social
Democrat MEP Birgit Sippel , who
follows Frontex, was not able to
confi rm whether Leggeri was facing
disciplinary action but said there had
been incorrect use of project funds
at Frontex.
A spokesperson for Olaf confi rmed
an investigation into Frontex was
closed on 15 February but declined
to make any further comment, citingconfi dentiality rules to protect the
people involved and “possible
follow-up in administrative and
judicial proceedings”.
Leggeri, a French national who
held senior posts in his country’s
interior and defence ministries, has
led Frontex since 2015, a period when
it was transformed from an obscureEU agency into a central plank of its
border control policy. After the 2015
migration crisis, EU leaders agreed to
give the Warsaw-based agency more
powers, staff and money. Frontex is
due to have 10,000 border and coast
guards by 2027 and its budget has
increased more than 19-fold since
its creation in 2006.
Leggeri has faced heavy criticism,
including from a special commit-
tee at the European parliament that
last year accused the agency of fail-
ing to protect the human rights of
asylum seekers.
A spokesperson for the European
Commission said Frontex ha d a “crit-
ically important task, which was to
help member states to protect the
common EU external borders and to
uphold at the same time the funda-
mental rights in doing so ”.
They added: “ To achieve this Fron-
tex must have in place a stable and
well-functioning agency.”
Sippel said Leggeri’s resignation
was long overdue. “For years Leg-
geri has mismanaged the EU’s border
and coastguard agency, signifi cantly
harming its reputation and mislead-
ing the parliament along the way. ”Head of EU border agency Frontex resigns
following investigation by anti-fraud offi ce
Reuters
Jerusalem
Israeli police fi red rubber bullets and
stun grenades towards young Pales-
tinians throwing rocks yesterday,
in the latest outbreak of violence at
Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, a site
revered by Muslims and Jews.
At least 42 Palestinians were
Israeli police and Palestinians
clash outside al-Aqsa mosque
injured in the early-morning clashes
at Islam’s third holiest site, the Pales-
tine Red Crescent said.
Israeli police said they intervened
when hundreds of people began hurl-
ing rocks and fi reworks, including
in the direction of the Western Wall,
where Jewish worshippers gather.
Police said : “We will continue to act
decisively against rioters and outlaws
for public safety and security.”There were confrontations almost
each day at the mosque when
Ramadan and Passover overlapped,
bringing hundreds of thousands of
Muslims and Jews to the heavily
policed site in the old city.
But the violence had abated this
week after Passover ended and Israel
halted Jewish visits to the huge espla-
nade, which is home to Dome of the
Rock and al-Aqsa mosque. The com-
pound is Judaism’s holiest site.
Ramadan ends next week and
large crowds often gather on the fi nal
Friday at al-Aqsa.
Israeli offi cials have blamed ten-
sions this month on Islamist groups,
including Hamas, which rules theGaza Strip, saying the groups have
encouraged you ng people to stage
riots aimed at stirring anger in the
Muslim world against Israel.
Palestinians accused Israel of
not doing enough to enforce a
longstanding ban on Jewish prayer
on the esplanade , an accusation that
Israel rejects.
Al-Aqsa sits on top of the old city
plateau of East Jerusalem, which
Israel captured in 1967 during the six
day war and annexed in a move not
internationally recogn ised.▲ Fabrice Legg eri, the head of
Frontex, resigned on Thursday▲ Palestinians rally at Jerusalem’s
al-Aqsa mosque complex yesterday
PHOTOGRAPH: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/GETTY