By Shannon Tiezzi
The reported decapitation of Haruna Yukawa is causing some to question the wisdom of Japan’s new security stance.
On January 20, Islamic State released an online video in which it threatened to kill two Japanese citizens, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, unless the group received $200 million in ransom within 72 hours. On Saturday, a new video posted online claimed that one of the hostages, Yukawa, had been decapitated. The video appeared to show Goto holding a photo of the body of Yukawa. Yukawa is part of a growing list of foreigners beheaded by IS, including U.S. reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.
In the video, a voice purportedly belonging to Goto conveyed a new demand from his IS captors. Instead of money, the group is now demanding the release of a female prisoner in Jordan, Sajida al-Rishawi, who has been sentenced to death for a series of 2005 terrorist attacks. Japan’s government said on Monday that it was seeking Jordan’s cooperation in securing Goto’s release, but would not confirm the content of those discussions. Even prior to the demand for al-Rishawi’s release, Japan was using Jordan as a base for the coordinating regional efforts to save the hostages.
Confusion surrounded the initial release of the video on Saturday. According to SITE Intelligence, the video was posted to Twitter accounts linked to IS, but it was not released or confirmed by more official IS media sources. The U.S. and Japanese governments, after conducting their own investigations, concluded that the video was credible, but some of Goto’s family members and friends said they were not convinced the voice heard in the video was actually his.
Read the full story at The Diplomat