Japan Press Weekly

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2015 January 21 - 27 TOP3 [WORLD]

Shii condemns ‘Islamic State’ for carrying out acts of appalling cruelty

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 25 on the public broadcast network NHK’s TV program condemned the ongoing Japanese hostage crisis by the extremist Islamic State group as appallingly cruel acts.

The Islamic State last week released an online video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages, Yukawa Haruna and Goto Kenji, unless the Japanese government pays a $200 million ransom within 72 hours. On the night of January 24, the extremist group posted on the internet site a video message indicating that one of the hostages, Yukawa, had been killed.

Shii in the NHK program said that the Islamic group’s act is unforgivable and called on the government to work for the safe return of the remaining hostage as a primary goal and pursue every possible avenue and channel to achieve this goal.