美国国家公共电台 NPR 美国司法部将起诉两名英国籍ISIS成员（在线收听）

We turn now to the Justice Department. NPR has learned that the U.S. expects to announce charges this week against two British nationals. They're suspected of being part of an Islamic State cell that killed American hostages. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now with more.

现在来关注司法部。NPR新闻获悉，美国本周将宣布对两名英国国民的指控。这二人疑似为ISIS成员，涉嫌杀害美国人质。NPR新闻的司法记者瑞安·卢卡斯将和我们连线。

Hey, Ryan.

你好，瑞安。

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.

瑞安·卢卡斯连线：你好。

CHANG: All right. So who exactly are these two men expecting to face charges here?

张：好。这两名在美国面临指控的男性到底是谁？

LUCAS: So the two men are Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. They are accused of being part of a notorious Islamic State cell in Syria that was made up of four men with British accents. Because of that, they were given the nickname of the Beatles. And this cell held Western hostages, including Americans, and they subjected these hostages to horrific abuse.

卢卡斯：这两个人是阿列克桑达·科泰和沙菲·谢赫。二人被指控是叙利亚臭名昭著的IS小组成员，该小组由四名英国口音的男子组成。正因为如此，他们被冠以“披头士”的绰号。这个小组将包括美国公民在内的西方人扣为人质，并让这些人质遭受可怕的虐待。

What ultimately made this cell so notorious, though, were the videos that it released in 2014 in which a masked man dressed in black, speaking in a British accent, killed hostages on camera. The first of those was an American journalist, James Foley. Two other Americans, journalist Steven Sotloff and an aid worker, Peter Kassig, were also killed on camera. The militants also beheaded British and Japanese citizens. I was in the Middle East at the time covering the Syria conflict when these videos came out. The Islamic State was well-known for atrocities. But even so, these videos were really shocking at the time.

不过，最终让这个小组如此声名狼藉的原因是，其在2014年发布的视频显示，一名身穿黑色衣服、操着英国口音的蒙面男子在镜头下杀害人质。第一个被杀害的人质是美国记者詹姆斯·福利。此外，还有两名美国人在镜头下丧生，他们是记者史蒂芬·索特洛夫和救援人员彼得·卡斯格。这些武装分子还斩首了英国和日本公民。这些视频发布时，我正在中东报道叙利亚冲突。IS以暴行闻名。但即便如此，这些视频在当时还是令人无比震惊。

CHANG: But clear something up for me. I mean, as we mentioned, these two men are both British nationals. We're talking about alleged crimes that happened in Syria. So why would these men be brought to the U.S. to face trial?

张：请帮我理清一些事。我们刚才提到，这两个人都是英国人。我们说的是发生在叙利亚的罪行。那为什么这二人会被带到美国接受审判？

LUCAS: This has actually been in the works for a very long time. The U.S. first requested evidence from Britain back in 2015 to help prosecute these guys. The U.K. at first balked because of the possibility that the U.S. could seek the death penalty in the case. Elsheikh's mother also filed a lawsuit in the U.K. to challenge any transfer of evidence or putting them on trial here. Attorney General William Barr this summer then assured the British government that the U.S. would not seek the death penalty in this case if they were brought here. That helped move things along. And then last month, the British court cleared the way for the U.K. government to share its evidence with U.S. authorities.

卢卡斯：这件事已经酝酿很长时间了。美国早在2015年就要求英国提供证据，以帮助起诉这两个人。起初，英国因为美国有可能寻求死刑而犹豫不决。谢赫的母亲也在英国提起诉讼，对证据的转移或审判在美国进行一事发起挑战。今年夏天，司法部长威廉·巴尔向英国政府保证，如果他们被带到美国受审，美国不会寻求死刑。这有助于推动事态发展。上个月，英国法院为英国政府与美国有关部门分享证据扫清了道路。

Now, the other two suspected members of this ISIS cell, by the way — they are already off the board. The ringleader, a man who was known as Jihadi John — he was killed in a drone strike in 2015. The other was captured in Turkey, where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Now we have the two remaining suspected members, Kotey and Elsheikh, who are expected to face justice here in the U.S.

顺便说一句，现在，这个ISIS小组的另外两名嫌犯已经不再隶属于该小组。该小组头目被称为“圣战约翰”，他在2015年的一次无人机袭击中被击毙。另一名成员在土耳其被捕，在那里受审、定罪并被判入狱。科泰和埃谢赫是现在剩下的两名嫌疑成员，预计二人将在美国接受法律制裁。

CHANG: Right. OK. So do we know anything more specific about the charges that they're going to be facing?

张：好。就他们将面临的指控而言，我们有了解到更具体的信息吗？

LUCAS: At this point, we do not. But my sources tell me that the Justice Department is expected to unveil charges against them this week. Now, these two were captured in Syria in 2018 by Kurdish allies of the U.S. They've been held at an American military base in Iraq, but they are expected to be transferred to the U.S. in the near future for trial. And that will be welcome news to the families of their victims who have urged the American government to do exactly this — to bring these men to the U.S. to face trial and bring them to justice.

卢卡斯：目前没有。但我的消息来源告诉我，司法部将在本周公布对他们的指控。这二人于2018年在叙利亚被美国的库尔德盟友抓获。他们一直被关押在美国驻伊拉克军事基地，但预计二人将在不久的将来被移交给美国接受审判。这对受害者家属来说将是个好消息，他们敦促美国政府做到这一点——将这些人带到美国审判，并将他们绳之以法。

Now, in interviews with media outlets since their capture, Kotey and Elsheikh have admitted that they belong to the Islamic State, but they have denied any role in the killings of hostages. They said that they helped facilitate ransom negotiations with families and governments. But we will see what the specific charges are here. And that will then set the stage for what's going to be one of the biggest terrorism trials in this country in many years.

科泰和谢赫在被捕后接受了媒体采访，二从承认他们是ISIS成员，但否认与杀害人质事件有任何关系。他们说，他们帮助促进了IS与家属和政府的赎金谈判。至于具体指控为何，我们要拭目以待。届时，这将为美国多年来规模最大的一次恐怖主义审判铺平道路。

CHANG: That is NPR's Ryan Lucas.

张：以上是NPR新闻的瑞安·卢卡斯带来的报道。

Thank you, Ryan.

谢谢你，瑞安。

LUCAS: Thank you.

卢卡斯：谢谢。