Islamic State 'Beatles' were arrested at 9/11 protest in UK months before travelling to Syria

The British Islamic State militants known as 'The Beatles' were arrested at a protest in support of the 9/11 terror attacks at the US Embassy in London months before travelling to Syria, it emerged in a criminal indictment released on Wednesday.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were detained while attending a Muslims Against Crusaders demonstration on September 11, 2011, raising questions as to how the pair managed to evade UK authorities to join jihadists fighting in Syria.

The Londoners were charged by US prosecutors at the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday over the torture and kiling of British and American hostages.

In an embarrassing revelation for the British authorities, the US indictment states that the two men were “radicalised in London” and revealed that they had previously been arrested during the Muslims Against Crusades protest outside the US Embassy.

Muslims Against Crusades was a branch of a group set up by extremist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, whom the The Telegraph later revealed was recruiting for the Islamic State, and it had links to notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudhary.

The protest to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, during which the US flag was burnt, was also attended by Choudhary and Siddhartha Dhar, known as “Jihadi Sid” who went on  to become the Islamic State group’s executioner and a poster boy for the terror group.

Muslims Against Crusades was banned by Theresa May, the then Home Secretary, just two months later in November 2011.

The Metropolitan Police were unable to answer questions on what Kotey and Elsheikh were arrested for or what happened to their case.

Officers were facing questions on how they were able to travel to Syria just 11 months after their arrest, in August 2012, despite their arrests and links to a banned terror organisation.

Once in Syria the pair formed half of a four-man cell from west London dubbed 'The Beatles', alongside Muhammed Emwazi, who had been on MI5’s radar since 2009, when he was refused entry to Tanzania.

Kotey, 36, and Elsheikh, 33, arrived in the US from Iraq early morning and were due to appear before a federal court to answer the charges of conspiracy to commit homicide, hostage-taking resulting in death, and material support for a foreign terrorist organisation.

Their trial, which will likely take place early next year, is set to be the most high-profile terrorism trial in recent history.

The men, who have had their British citizenship revoked, will not face the death penalty, however, after the US agreed to rule out capital punishment following objections from the UK.

Commenting on the charges, Bethany Haines, the daughter of British aid worker David Haines, who was murdered by the group in a videoed execution in 2014, welcomed the indictment but said she was “disappointed” there was not more emphasis on crimes committed against her father.

She told The Telegraph she hoped the men would give up information she and other relatives had long been waiting for.

“They continue to torture the families by withholding the information about where their bodies are,” she said. “I pray that this will come out in the trial, so we can have closure.”