The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem: what to do with the British citizens who travelled to join and fight with Isis, but who have survived hostilities. The problem has been brought to a head by the capture, by a group of Syrian Kurds, of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two Londoners who were members of ‘the Beatles’, a group which tortured and beheaded at least 27 hostages.
There is little use in looking to the government for consistent guidance as to what should happen to the two men, who have been stripped of their British citizenship. Last October Rory Stewart, then a foreign office minister, suggested that ‘nearly all Britons who joined IS should be killed’ — a view that was echoed by the incoming defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, a few weeks later. Yet this week another foreign office minister, Tobias Ellwood, took a very different tack, saying that the pair must be made to ‘answer to a legitimate authority’ such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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