Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Photo : Reuters)
Islamic rebel group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, most commonly known as ISIL or ISIS, released a video online showing two Japanese hostages to the world and demanding $200 million ransom from Japanese government on Jan. 20, Tuesday, The Irish Times reported.
The video that was posted in social media shows the two captives, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, with a masked ISIS militant in black. The man said that both would die unless Japanese government will pay for their ransom amounting to $200 million within 72 hours.
The militant on the video also suggests that Japanese citizens only has 72 hours to stop their government in cooperating and supporting all military campaigns against ISIS. He said, "To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,500 km away from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade."
It can be recalled that when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Cairo in Jan. 17, he vowed to give non-military assistance worth $200 million for those countries that are against and are battling with Islamic State.
This is the second time that ISIS asked a hefty amount of money as a ransom in public. The first one was the James Foley case, wherein, the rebel group demanded $100 million euros for them to release the American journalist though the U.S government did not paid the said amount leading to Foley's execution. ISIS did not only record Foley being beheaded, the rebel group also recorded the way he was killed and shared it online, CNN News reported.
There's no confirmation yet if Japanese government will pay for the ransom though it is said that they are against in paying "ransoms to terrorists." The country is said to have signed a 2013 G8 communique, which states "We unequivocally reject the payment of ransoms to terrorists, and we call on countries and companies around the world to follow our lead to stamp this out."
