Bethany Haines, 24, will fly from her home in Perthshire, Scotland, Virginia to face El Shafee Elsheikh in person, almost eight years after the death of her father, David Haines. Haines said she would ask Elsheikh to “do the right thing” and reveal the remains of her father and other Western hostages. “Do not do it for me,” she will tell him. “Do it for my son, to finally say goodbye to his grandfather.” Elsheikh, one of the so-called “Beatles” of British IS members, will become the highest-ranking Islamic State fighter to face Western justice when his trial begins in Alexandria this week. The 33-year-old from Shepherd’s Bush, in west London, is accused of being involved in the killing of 28 British, American and foreign hostages in Syria between 2014 and 2015. He denies the accusations. Haynes will be in court every day of the trial and will read a victim impact statement if Elseih is convicted. “I have been preparing for this for years,” he told the Sunday Times. “I want to be able to see him at any time. to see the expressions on his face “. He doubts that Elseih will regret it. “He believes it is above all,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. “He even smiled at a witness at a previous hearing.” David Haines, a former RAF engineer, was a humanitarian aid worker in Syria when he was abducted in 2013. Footage of his assassination was shared around the world. His daughter said he felt it was a “miracle” that Elsheikh would finally face justice. The former Islamic State fighter told investigators that he had specific details about the death of David Haynes. He also claimed that Mohamed Emouazi, the leader nicknamed “Jihadi John”, had buried James Foley, an American national, and cremated the body of Steven Sotloff, an American journalist. Haynes, who has traveled to Syria several times to find answers to her father’s death, said she would make it clear in court that his murder had nothing to do with religion. He told the Telegraph: “When it first happened I was young and naive. I thought: Christians do not go around doing these things. But when I traveled to Syria I met so many Muslims who had been influenced by IS. It changed my mind and woke me up – it has absolutely nothing to do with religion. “They hate to hide behind it.” Some families of the victims were disappointed when the US agreed to lift the death penalty in the case in exchange for access to sensitive operational information from the British authorities. He said: “Honestly, I just wanted to hang them from a tree, anywhere. I wanted them to disappear, because prison is not going to change their minds. They are cruel extremists who will never feel anything close to remorse. “Why do they deserve to be on this planet when they have committed unspeakable crimes?” The trial is scheduled to last up to four weeks and hear 70 witnesses, including intelligence officials and other victims not included in the indictment.
