Attorney General William Barr has promised to formally rule out the death penalty for two notorious ISIS detainees to ensure that the British government can provide evidence against them, relatives of the victims told NBC News after speaking with Barr by phone Thursday.
Barr’s decision breaks an impasse with the British government and appears to clear the way for the two former UK residents — who were part of a group in Syria known as “the Beatles” — to be transferred from U.S. military custody in Iraq to the criminal justice system for trial in the United States.
“We just had a very promising call with the attorney general. He’s going to get the death penalty off the table in the coming days,” said Diane Foley, whose son, journalist James Foley, was beheaded in 2014 by one Beatles member.
