El-Wahabi was found guilty of financing terrorism and jailed for 28 months, while Masaad was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The firearms charge relates to an image on El-Wahabi’s phone showing Davis in November 2013 next to a man holding a Kalashnikov.
Following the guilty pleas, it can now be reported that Ms Patel made a personal intervention as Home Secretary to try to get the US to prosecute Davis for his actions in Syria and “conniving” for him to return to the UK after serving his sentence. sentence. in Türkiye.
Mark Summers KC, defending, claimed during a legal argument earlier this year that Ms Patel made a phone call to the US attorney general that veered into “Alice in Wonderland” territory.
MI5 visit
Davis was long suspected of being a member of the Beatles group, responsible for the murders of several European and American hostages.
The hostages gave the group the nickname because of their British accent. Two members, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, are each serving eight life sentences in the United States. Another, Mohammed Emwazzi, known as “Jihadi John,” was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
In 2019, British MI5 agents visited Davis in a Turkish prison to question him about his involvement, the court was told.
After the visit, Davis claimed that his treatment inside the prison worsened and he was allegedly forced to share a cell with seven other people in a possible “deliberate attempt to break his will.”
He continually resisted deportation and asked to travel to a third country or remain in Turkey, but was allegedly told that would not be possible.
On June 18 last year, British officials learned that New York prosecutors were seeking to extradite Davis to the United States and charge him with providing “material support” to IS.
However, prosecutors later clarified that they were not seeking to prosecute him as a member of the Beatles cell, saying there were only three members.
Davis has always denied being a member of the unit and the United States ultimately decided not to file any charges against him.
Patel accused of ‘irregular’ approach
Shortly afterward, Summers suggested, Patel called the U.S. attorney general and “begged them to take over the prosecution of Mr. Davis.”
He said this was “seriously irregular” and added that the proper cause of action would have been extradition from Turkey directly to the United States.
Summers said: “The personal involvement of the Home Secretary in trying to persuade a foreign country to prosecute a UK citizen is frankly extraordinary… It is difficult to overstate the illegality and irregularity of what was under contemplation for some time.” .
In mid-July, Davis was offered the option of returning to the UK voluntarily and was given the chance to use a private plane which would avoid any “media storm” upon his arrival.
After landing at Luton Airport, he was detained by British counter-terrorism police and charged with three offences.
Davis will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on November 13.
