Criminal Law
ISIS Kidnapper Sentenced to Life in Prison for the Death of Virginia Woman
A second ISIS militant was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the kidnapping and killing of Prescott native Kayla Mueller, a relief to her parents who pledged to continue fighting for her memory.
“Now we can set this behind us,” Carl Mueller said outside the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, where El Shafee Elsheikh was sentenced for crimes the judge called “horrific, barbaric, brutal, callous and, of course, criminal.”
Mueller, a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker, was working with Syrian refugees in southern Turkey when she took a work-related trip for Doctors Without Borders in August 2013 to Aleppo, Syria. It was there that she was taken captive by ISIS fighters and held hostage for 18 months until her death in 2015.
