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This
still image apparently showing Kenji Goto holding a picture of Haruna
Yukawa's body appeared alongside the recording, but some have said it looks Photoshopped.
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The Japanese government has branded a new audio recording
purporting to be from one of the hostages pictured with Jihadi John 'outrageous
and disgusting', but cannot confirm if it is genuine.
In the recording, a voice claiming to be that of Kenji Goto,
47, one of the Japanese men who appeared in the latest Jihadi John video, says
his fellow captive Haruna Yukawa has been killed, according to Daily Mail/RT.com.
He blames the death on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
and says he will be killed as well if ISIS's new demand to release a failed
female suicide bomber is not met.
The Japanese government has condemned the message, but say
they cannot verify its authenticity after allegations that the Jihadi John
video was also stitched together from several recordings.
The audio recording is accompanied with a still image showing
Mr Goto apparently holding a picture of Mr Yukawa's body. However, the arms holding the paper appear to have been
doctored on to the body, leading to speculation that the whole recording is an
elaborate hoax. If the video does turn out to be genuine, then it would be a
radical departure from the Islamic State's usual method of operations.
ISIS typically uses high-definition video recordings to make
its threats, usually recorded somewhere in the desert, though to be located in
the area around Raqqa in Syria.
Who Is Sajida
Al-Rishawi?
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| Sajida al-Rishawi (Image source: Daily Mail UK) |
Sajida al-Rishawi gained notoriety in 2005 after confessing
on Jordanian television that she tried to blow herself up alongside her husband
in an Al Qaeda attack in Amman, Jordan.
The failed suicide bomber's chilling confession came after
she was arrested when her bomb belt failed to detonate at the Radisson Hotel, a
building commonly frequented by diplomats.
Appearing in a headscarf and a long black coat, she said: 'We
went into the hotel. He (my husband) took a corner and I took
another.
'My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it
failed. People started running and I ran with them.'
Rishawi's husband and two other suicide bombers belonging to
Al Qaeda in Iraq killed themselves and 60 other people in the three
simultaneous attacks at the Hyatt, Radisson and Days Inn hotels.
Following her capture and confession, she was sentenced to
death.
Despite later retracting the confession and appealing her
sentence, she remains imprisoned in Jordan.
The latest clip is accompanied by Arabic subtitles, as is
standard for ISIS videos, but is missing the black and white jihadi flag that
appears on all other ISIS propaganda.
In most recordings it is only usually Jihadi John, the masked
executioner, who speaks. The hostages typically only recite a short, scripted
message before they are killed.
However in this case, the man claiming to be Mr Goto narrates
a two-minute message in which he issues a heartfelt plea to his wife.
He says: 'You have seen the photo of my cellmate, slaughtered
in the land of the Islamic Caliphate.
'You were warned, you were given a deadline and so my
captives acted upon their words. (Prime Miniseter) Abe you killed Haruna, you
did not take the threat of my captors seriously and you did not act within the
72 hours.'
He then speaks directly to his wife, who he names as Rinco,
asking her to listen to the captors new demands.
He continues: 'Their demand is easy. They are being fair.
They no longer want money so you do not need to worry about funding terrorists.
'They are just demanding the release of their imprisoned
sister Sajida al-Rishawi. It is simple, you give them Sajida, and I will be
released.
'At the moment it actually looks possible and our government are
indeed a stone's throw away.
'Our government representatives are ironically in Jordan
where their sister Sajida is held by the Jordanian regime.'
Suspicion is running high over the latest tape after the
video footage of Mr Goto and Mr Yukawa kneeling in the desert beside Jihadi
John was also branded a fake.
Experts said the footage was likely stitched together from
several recordings as the shadows cast on the ground and on the captive's faces
are all falling in different directions.
Another giveaway is their shirts, which do not blow in the
breeze at the same time, but instead move at different points in the
video.
Yukawa, aged around 42 and who dreamed of becoming a military
contractor, was captured in August outside the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Goto, 47, a war correspondent with experience in Middle East
hot spots, went to Syria in late October to try to help Yukawa.
'He left a very young baby
and left his family and I asked his wife why he made this decision and she said
he had to do everything in his power to save his friend and acquaintance and
that it was very important to him,' said his mother.
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