AFP

British authorities have charged a man suspected of being a member of an Islamic State cell known as "The Beatles" that specializes in capturing, torturing and executing Western hostages, and he was arrested upon his arrival in the United Kingdom. Police said in a statement Thursday that Ayn Leslie Davis, 38, was arrested upon arrival at Luton Airport, northwest of London. Several British media, including the BBC, reported that he had arrived in Britain on a flight from Turkey, where he was serving a sentence of seven and a half years in prison for terrorist crimes. The Metropolitan Police, which leads counter-terrorism investigations, confirmed in a statement the arrest of a man at Luton Airport, without giving his name because suspects are not identified before they are charged. "A 38-year-old man was arrested this evening (Tuesday) after arriving in the UK on a flight from Turkey," it said in a statement. And she added, "His arrest was carried out in accordance with a number of articles of the Anti-Terrorism Law." And the British Home Office said in another statement that a British citizen was deported from Turkey to the United Kingdom. "It would be inappropriate to release more information while the police are conducting their investigations," she added. The accused, according to a police statement, was taken to South London Police Station "where he is still being held". - Convicted in the United States - Davis was arrested in Turkey in November 2015 and imprisoned there for terrorist acts. The four members of the "Beatles", who are called by this name because of their British accent, are accused of kidnapping 27 journalists and humanitarian workers from the United States, Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan. They are suspected of torturing and beheading American journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, as well as humanitarian workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. The Islamic State group posted propaganda videos showing their execution on social media. In January 2018, Kurdish forces in Syria arrested two members of the Beatles cell, Alexanda Kotey, 38, and Al-Shafei Al-Sheikh, 34, and handed them over to US forces in Iraq before they were sent to Britain. London eventually extradited them to the United States in 2020, where they are accused of taking hostages, conspiring to kill American citizens, and supporting a foreign terrorist organization. Kotey pleaded guilty in September to the murder and was sentenced the following April to life imprisonment. The sheikh was convicted of all charges in April and will be sentenced next week. The fourth member of the "Beatles" cell is Muhammad Muwazi, who was killed in a drone attack in Syria in 2015. In 2014, Davis' wife Amal al-Wahhabi became the first person in the UK to be convicted of financing Islamic State jihadists for her attempt to send 20,000 euros to her husband in Syria. During her trial, which led to her imprisonment for 28 months, Davis was described as a drug dealer before heading to Syria.