A German hostage kidnapped in Afghanistan last month died of gunshot wounds instead of heart attack as previously believed, German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday after an autopsy of the body.
The 44-year-old engineer was abducted together with another German engineer, who is still alive, by a Taliban group two weeks ago.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said the autopsy showed that the engineer had collapsed but was still alive before the shots were fired.
A total of six bullet wounds were found in the body, he said.
The bullet-riddled body was flown back to Germany last week and the body has been under examination in the western city of Cologne.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is visiting Ghana as part of his African tour, said Thursday that " this crime must not be allowed to go unpunished."
"His abductors...finally put an end to his life is a criminal manner," he said.
The government is trying everything it could to free the second hostage who is reportedly suffering from high blood pressure and need regular medication, said the minister.
Al Jazeera television on Tuesday broadcast a video showing the German begging for help from the German government in a hilly area.
The video was a deliberate attempt to intimidate German government, said German Foreign Ministry.
The purported Taliban group has demanded the departure of all German soldiers from Afghanistan and the release of captured Taliban militants.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reaffirmed Friday that Germany will not give in to blackmails and will not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
Germany now has about 3,000 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in the relatively stable northern region.
The two German nationals and five of their Afghan colleagues, who are civil engineers working on a dam project in Afghanistan, were reportedly abducted Wednesday in Wardak province, about 100 km southwest of Kabul.
Source: Xinhua
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