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ABritish man accused of being a member of a notorious Islamic State terror cell dubbed “The Beatles” has been charged with terrorism offences in the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Aine Davis, 38, was detained by counter terror officers at Luton airport on Wednesday night following his release from a Turkish jail.
He was deported from Turkey where he spent seven-and-a-half-years in prison after he was convicted of being a member of the terrorist group, an allegation he denied.
Davis has been charged with terrorism offences in 2014 and possession of a firearm for a purpose connected with terrorism, the CPS said. He will now appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today.
A spokesman for the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division said: “The CPS authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Aine Leslie Junior Davis for terrorism offences in 2014, and after being deported to England by Turkish authorities he has been arrested at Luton airport following his return to the UK.
“Mr Davis, 38, has been charged with terrorism offences and possession of a firearm for a purpose connected with terrorism.”
A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police added: “Aine Leslie Davis, (11.02.84) of no fixed address, was charged with offences contrary to sections 15, 17 and 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
“He has been remanded in police custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later this morning, Thursday August 11.
“On Wednesday August 10, officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command arrested a 38-year-old man at Luton Airport after he arrived into the UK on a flight from Turkey.
“He was taken to a south London police station and subsequently charged with the above offences.”
The ‘Beatles’ terror cell was infamous internationally for torturing and beheading American journalists and British aid workers in Syria and Iraq.
The leader of the cell, Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, was killed in an airstrike in 2015.
Two other members, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were convicted earlier this year in the US of executing hostages, torture and kidnap. Davis denies being the fourth member, known as Jihadi Paul.
Davis, the son of a school dinner lady and a father who briefly worked for John Lewis, was born in Hammersmith in February 1984 and spent his early years in Fulham.
He was one of 13 children his father had by four different mothers. Aged five, he was sent to Gambia, his father’s birthplace, to live with his grandmother because he was “driving his mother crazy”.
He returned to the UK aged eight, before going back to Gambia and then returning to London for good aged 17.
He had two children with one woman, before marrying a second he met at a local mosque in west London in 2006. Davis had by then converted to Islam and was calling himself Hamza.
In 2009, Davis travelled to Yemen, enrolling at a religious Islamic school, and later embarked on further travels to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage, and then Yemen, Egypt and Qatar.
He later had two children with his second wife, before announcing in 2013 that he was leaving for Syria via Turkey.
Aine Davis: Alleged fourth IS ‘Beatle’ charged with terrorism offences (msn.com)