Alexanda Kotey, a former British citizen who became a notorious terrorist and member of the ISIS cell called “The Beatles,” was serving a life sentence for the kidnap, torture, and murder of several western journalists and aid workers in Syria.

In 2021, Kotey pled guilty to eight criminal charges related to these abductions and murders that took place between 2012 and 2015. During his trial, Kotey accepted a plea deal to avoid serving out his sentence at the ADX Florence prison in Colorado, nicknamed the ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies.’

Alexanda Kotey

He was sentenced to life in prison and was being held at Pennsylvania’s high-security Canaan prison, ‘one of the most dangerous penitentiaries’ in the U.S. However, less than six months after his trial, he is listed as “not in BOP custody” on the prison system’s website.

A BOP spokesperson confirmed that “Alexanda Amon Kotey is not currently in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons,” and added that there are “several reasons” why an inmate could be listed as not being in the system.

“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,” said the spokesperson.

Due to potential safety, security, or privacy issues, the federal prison system does not disclose the details relating to inmates.

Alexanda Kotey

While unverified, it has been speculated that the ISIS member could be helping federal authorities with other investigations. This is one of the outcomes feared by 24-year-old Bethany Haines, the daughter of British aid worker David Haines, who was captured, tortured, and beheaded by Kotey.

Haines, who is from Perth, Scotland, told The Scottish Daily Record that she contacted the U.S. Justice Department after she noticed Kotey was no longer traceable in the federal prison system.

Last June, Haines met Kotey in court, where he told her how he abducted her father and witnessed his torture and murder.

“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,” Haines said. “In the past, he has been traceable, as we have access to data via the U.S. victim notification scheme, and we at least had the reassurance that he was in a high-security facility.”

Haines also said that the terrorist’s disappearance was unfair to the families of his victims, who are now “left to wonder where he is.”

However, Haines did confirm that U.S. Justice sources told her that Kotey is still detained in the U.S.

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