Islamic State radio says Croatian hostage killed in Egypt

During a phone call on Thursday 13/8/2015 with his Croatian counterpart Vesna Pusic, Shoukry said Egypt is doing its best to arrest the captors. It would be the first slaying of a foreign captive in Egypt, with the release of a video of him alive and then a photo of the alleged beheading, since the emergence of an Islamic State affiliate there.

“At this moment we are still not sure and have no definitive confirmation either from our side or the Egyptian side that the person in the photograph posted yesterday (Wednesday) is really Tomislav Salopek“, Pusic said.

The sister of an Egyptian woman jailed on charges of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, Esraa el-Taweel, said she spoke to her sister about the threat against Salopek’s life during a recent prison visit.

The government has been struggling to project an image of stability and revive the economy following years of unrest.

The Islamic State (IS) group on Wednesday said it has beheaded a Croatian hostage and released a picture of a body, after what would be the first such killing of a Westerner in Egypt.

Salopek’s abduction and purported killing were unprecedented in Egypt, which is battling an IS insurgency in the eastern Sinai Peninsula. Many European hostages have been released, reportedly in exchange for ransom, while citizens of the United States and Britain, which refuse to pay ransoms, have been killed.

He appeared in a video last week in which he appealed to the Egyptian government to free female political prisoners in Egyptian jails within 48 hours, warning that he would be killed by the Daesh-linked group.