Japanese PM condemns as 'outrageous' apparent beheading of hostage by IS

Japan’s Prime Minister has condemned as “outrageous” new footage appearing to show Islamic State (IS) militants beheading a Japanese hostage.

Shinzo Abe said on Sunday that the footage, circulated by IS supporters on Saturday, has a “high” probability of being genuine.

Militants released a picture purporting to show the decapitated body of 47-year-old Haruna Yukawa, a man who travelled to Syria with the aim of becoming a security consultant.

Yukawa’s father, speaking to a Japanese public service broadcaster, said he had hope “deep in [his] heart” that news of his son’s death was not true, saying that he wanted to give Yukawa “a big hug”.

After an examination of the video and graphic photograph, experts are still unclear as to whether they are credible.

The video was not distributed by al-Furqan, the IS channel that usually publishes its grisly execution propaganda.

The footage did not include a lengthy introduction, as has become the standard in these clips – instead, the video is composed of a still image showing a second Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto, holding a picture showing Yukawa’s body.

Though experts have cast doubt on the video, saying it could have been digitally manipulated, efforts will now doubtless intensify to free Goto, a 47-year-old journalist.

Goto’s mother made an impassioned plea for the release of her son on Friday as a ransom deadline set by his captors passed.

"I say to you people of the Islamic State, Kenji is not your enemy. Please release him," she said.  

"Kenji was always saying 'I hope to save lives of children on battlefields.' He was reporting war from a neutral position”.

The IS militants holding Goto and Yukawa were demanding the payment of $200m in exchange for their release – Japanese PM Abe had pledged this same amount in non-military aid to the countries supporting the US-led coalition against IS.

Now, they are offering to free Goto as part of a prisoner swap, in exchange for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who plotted with her husband to blow up the Radisson SAS hotel in Jordanian capital Amman in 2005.

Her suicide belt failed to detonate, and her husband pushed her out of the room before detonating his own explosives and killing himself along with 38 others.

She was initially arrested and sentenced to death after issuing a confession, which she later retracted.