Prisoners For Sale

[JihadiJohn]

Islamic State hostage ‘matches characteristics’ of Chinese citizen, says Foreign Ministry

Beijing has yet to confirm the identity of the man, who has been named as Bejing consultant Fan Jinghui by the extremist group

PUBLISHED : Friday, 11 September, 2015, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Friday, 11 September, 2015, 4:20pm

Agencies in Beijing, Oslo and Dubai

The Islamic State posters of the hostages Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad (left), from Oslo, and a man believed to Fan Jinghui, from Beijing. Photos SCMP Pictures

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a Chinese national reported as being held hostage by Islamic State insurgents matches the “characteristics” of a Chinese citizen who is abroad.

Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a regular news briefing.

The Islamic State group said on Wednesday that was holding a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage and asked for an unspecified ransom for their release.

Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad (left) and the man believed to be Fan Jinghui as they appear in their Islamic State ransom posters. Photo: SCMP

The extremist group identified the Chinese hostage as Fan Jinghui, a 50-year-old consultant, and the Norwegian as Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, 48, from Oslo.

The IS announcement came in the latest issue of the Sunni Muslim jihadists’ English-language magazine, Dabiq, distributed on Twitter.

It gave no details about where or when the men were captured, or where they were being held.

In the case of each man, it published an “advertisement” announcing that he was “for sale”.

Under each man’s photograph, it says: “To whom it may concern of the Crusaders, pagans, and their allies, as well as what are referred to as human ’rights’ organisations, this prisoner was abandoned by his government, which did not do its utmost to purchase his freedom.”

At the bottom it said: “Whoever would like to pay the ransom for his release and transfer can contact the following telegram number,” adding that this is a “limited time offer”.

It did not say how much money was being demanded, nor when the opportunity to pay it would expire.

Fan’s personal information released by IS matches a Beijing-based man who worked in media industry, but no relatives or friends of the man had publicly confirmed the man was actually the hostage by early Friday.

On Thursday the family of the Norwegian hostage, Grimsgaard-Ofstad, called for his release and said it was unable to pay the ransom IS was asking.

The Norwegian government has ruled out paying for his release.

“We are not able to pull together the huge sum that the hostage-takers are demanding. We can only appeal to the hostage-takers to free our son and brother,” said the family of Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad in a statement relayed by Norwegian authorities.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press