‘ISIS Beatle’ Alexanda Kotey has disappeared from the US prison system sparking anger and confusion for the family members of his victims. The 39-year-old was handed a life sentence for the torture and murder of American hostages last year after pleading guilty in 2021 to eight criminal charges relating to the abduction, torture and beheading of Islamic State hostages in Syria. But he is no longer in custody at Pennsylvania’s high-security Canaan prison, Federal Bureau of Prisons records revealed.
The daughter of murdered British aide worker Scot David Haines has erupted at the disappearance.
Bethany told The Scottish Daily Record: “I was made aware that Kotey had disappeared from the system and it has been impossible to trace where he is.
“That doesn’t seem right because I don’t want to think that he has managed to negotiate his way into any kind of easy treatment on the basis of him assisting authorities or anything else.
“In the past he has been traceable, as we have access to data via the US victim notification scheme, and we at least had the reassurance that he was in a high-security facility.
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“The last we heard he was in a maximum security jail in Pennsylvania, which is renowned for violence, and I was fine with that because I don’t want to hear about him getting any easy time.
“I don’t think it is right that he can just disappear from the system and the families whose lives were devastated by his actions are left to wonder where he is.”
She added: “There are various possibilities for him disappearing from the Bureau of Prisons, the most likely being that he is offering assistance to authorities.”
Bethany’s father was abducted in 2013 by ‘ISIS Beatles’ along with Alan Henning and Americans Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
Bureau of Prisons spokesman Donald Murphy said: “Alexanda Amon Kotey is not currently in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). There are several reasons why an inmate may be referenced as ‘not in BOP custody’.
“Inmates who were previously in BOP custody and who have not completed their sentence may be outside BOP custody for a period of time for court hearings, medical treatment or for other reasons.
“We do not provide specific information on the status of inmates who are not in the custody of the BOP for safety, security, or privacy reasons.”
