The black-clad, masked British ISIS terrorist who has taken center stage in the group’s hostage videos appeared in a new video on Tuesday threatening the lives of two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa.
The terrorist explained that they would be executed in 72 hours if ISIS isn’t paid $200 million.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded on Tuesday saying the treatment of the hostages was “unacceptable.”
ISIS had similarly demanded 100 million euros (roughly $132.5 million) in ransom for the release of James Foley, the American journalist who was killed by the terrorist group in Syria in August.
Like the $200 million demand for the Japanese hostages, the Foley demand was never a serious negotiation effort as it far exceeded the amounts of money paid for hostages held by jihadist militant groups in the past, which typically have ranged up to several million dollars.
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This is the least bad solution to a terrible quandary, which is if that if you don’t pay the ransom the hostage dies, and if you do pay the ransom, you are helping a terrorist organization.
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