Jihadists behead German sailor freed by pirates

The video showed Jurgen Kantner surrounded by armed men as a knife was held to his neck.

Abu Sayyaf has been kidnapping foreigners and locals for decades and holding them for ransom on its remote island strongholds in the southern Philippines.

Jürgen Kantner was murdered in a jungle clearing by a member of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group after a deadline for a £480,000 ransom payment expired.

The beheading was supposedly done by the group of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Muamar Askali alias Abu Rami.

“The Abu Sayyaf had chose to eliminate and neutralize this hostage because he was too sickly and infirm, that he was more of a liability to them in their mobility”.

The video of the beheading has come a day after Philippine troops said they will not get distracted by a threat from Abu Sayyaf to behead Kantner.

Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza on Monday said the military did its best in trying to rescue the German hostage before he was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf.

“But we need body of proof”, he said, as quoted by The Inquirer.

Speaking at the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said ASG may have killed Kantner because he was sick.

The Canadians were abducted in Sept 2015 with a Norwegian man and a Filipino woman, who were later both freed separately.

The vessel was found drifting on 7 November, with the body of Kantner’s female companion Sabine Merz with a gunshot wound.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said his office was in contact with the Philippine authorities, saying if the video turned out to be genuine it would be “one of the cruellest crimes one could imagine”. “We must stand together and fight against them”.

Ms Merz is believed to have been shot dead when she tried to resist the militants.

The video “is not enough” proof that the execution took place, said Brigadier General Restituto Padilla, a spokesman for the military. It was accused of involvement in the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila that killed more than 100 people and other deadly attacks, as well as high-profile kidnappings.

Duterte has ordered the military to launch an all-out offensive against the estimated 500 Abu Sayyaf bandits operating mostly in the hinterlands of southern Philippine provinces of Sulu and Basilan.