Manila: The Philippines on Monday confirmed that Juergen Kantner, a German national abducted by the Abu Sayyaf militant group, had been beheaded by his captors.
A video of the execution was uploaded on a video sharing site.
“We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim, German Juergen Gustav Kantner, in Sulu,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said.
“Up to the last moment many sectors, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, exhausted all efforts to save his life. We all tried our best, but to no avail,” the official added.
In an earlier video on Saturday, Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead the 70-year-old Kantner by Sunday afternoon if their demand for a ransom of P30 million (Dh2.19 million) was not met.
Meanwhile, officials had launched efforts to retrieve Kantner’s body.
“We have asked for the help of local government officials and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in locating the body of Kantner,” army public affairs chief Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo said on Monday.
Kantner and his partner Sabine Merz were intercepted by gunmen, believed to be Abu Sayyaf fighters, as they were sailing aboard their boat, the Rockall, on November 6, 2016 in the area between Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
Merz was reportedly shot by one of the gunman as she tried to fight them off, but Kantner was taken to mainland Sulu as his kidnappers tried to negotiate for his ransom.
Kantner’s abduction and the attempt to kidnap his partner, Merz was the second in eight years.
In 2009 the couple were abducted by Somali pirates and held for 58 days until they were freed, reportedly after payment of a multi-million dollar ransom.
On Sunday afternoon, Dureza said on his social media account he had received reports that Kantner had already been executed.
He said in the meantime, the army and other security forces were maintaining their “search and rescue posture” until Kantner and all the other kidnap victims were freed.
Aside from the German, Abu Sayyaf were believed to be still holding a number of Western, Filipino as well as Malaysian and Indonesian hostages.
“What we can tell you is this: We will continue to conduct search and rescue and focused military operations to safely recover remaining Abu Sayyaf hostages and seriously degrade the bandit groups capability to conduct hostile actions against government forces,” Arevalo said.
“Terrorism has no place in a country like ours and we as a people must confront violent extremism every time it rears its ugly head. Another precious life had been needlessly lost. There must be a stop to this killing of the innocent and the helpless,” Dureza said adding that he had always been in close contact with German authorities.
The execution of Kantner follows that of two Canadian mining executives last year.
