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Seit November hielten islamistische Terroristen Jürgen K.
gefangen
Manila – Seit knapp vier Monaten befand er sich in Geiselhaft, nun ist er tot. Der auf den Philippinen entführte deutsche Segler Jürgen K. (70) wurde von Terroristen enthauptet. Die islamistische Terrorgruppe Abu Sayyaf ver?ffentlichte am Montag kurz nach Ablauf eines Ultimatums ein Video, das das furchtbare Verbrechen zeigt.
Kurz nach der Ver?ffentlichung des Videos best?tigte der philippinische Regierungsbeauftragte Jesus Dureza den Tod des Deutschen. „Wir verurteilen die barbarische Enthauptung eines weiteren Entführungsopfers“, erkl?rte Dureza. Die philippinischen Streitkr?fte h?tten alle erdenklichen Anstrengungen unternommen, um den Mann zu retten. „Wir haben unser Bestes versucht, aber erfolglos“, sagte Dureza. Milit?rvertreter im Süden des Landes sagten, sie h?tten die Leiche von Jürgen K. noch nicht gefunden.
MANILA — The Philippines said on Monday that a man shown
being beheaded in a video was a 70-year-old German who had been abducted by the Abu Sayyaf militant group three months ago while traveling with his partner on their yacht.
A short video posted by Abu Sayyaf on various sites affiliated with the militants showed the hostage, Jürgen Kantner, hogtied and slumped to the ground with a machete-wielding militant behind him.
The gruesome images, which run for less than two minutes, show a bearded and disheveled looking man identified by the Philippine authorities as Mr. Kantner, faintly saying “now they’ll kill me.”
The government said it was trying to recover the body of Mr. Kantner, who also had been abducted in 2008, off the coast of Somalia. He and his partner, Sabine Merz, had been held for 52 days in Somalia before their captors freed them, reportedly after a six-figure ransom had been paid.
“We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim,” said Jesus Dureza, an adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte. “Up to the last moment, many sectors, including the armed forces of the Philippines exhausted all efforts to save his life. We all tried our best, but to no avail.”
Mr. Dureza said he had been in close contact with the German authorities. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman, Martin Sch?fer, said the government could not assess whether the video was authentic, citing “the shortness of time.” Security officials would examine the “shocking” video, Mr. Sch?fer said.
He declined to give further information on the abduction or possible ransom claims, but added that as a matter of principle, public statements were not helpful in abduction cases.
Photo
Jürgen Kantner in 2009. Credit Mustafa Abdi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Kantner was seen in a video released by the militants earlier this month in which he said the Islamist militants would behead him soon if they did not receive a ransom.
Abu Sayyaf had demanded $600,000 for Mr. Kantner, and had set a deadline of Monday for the German and Philippine governments to comply. The Philippine authorities found the couple’s 53-foot yacht last year, and a dead woman later identified as Ms. Merz.
Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay Jr. said the Philippines would stick to its policy of refusing to pay ransom and that it would seek technological help from its allies to pinpoint the locations of remaining hostages.
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“We will undertake our operations to make sure we give a premium to saving the lives of the hostages and precisely because of this our task has not been easy but we are prepared to crush them when the opportunity comes,” he said in Geneva, where he was attending a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Although Abu Sayyaf is relatively small, it has been responsible for some of the country’s worst terrorist attacks, including bombings, killings and the targeting of foreign nationals.
Early last decade, it kidnapped a group of Asian, European and American tourists who were later ransomed for millions of dollars, according to military intelligence, and the group was blamed for a ferry bombing in 2004 that left more than 100 dead in what is considered the worst terrorist attack to strike the Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf, or Bearers of the Sword, has fewer than 500 members, in mostly poor areas in the southern islands of Basilan and Sulu. Despite its small size, it has rebuffed countless military offensives and remains a serious threat, often using abductions to raise funds and killing hostages when ransoms are not paid. Last year, the militants beheaded two Canadians and a Filipino it had seized separately.
