Jordan agrees to release female IS fighter but not in exchange for Japanese hostage

The condition set by Jordan is that IS must release a Jordanian military pilot, not a Japanese hostage.

IS once announced that it wanted to exchange female fighter Sajida al-Rishawi for a Japanese hostage (Photo: Reuters).

Jordan's state television reported that the government is ready to release female al Qaeda fighter Sajida al-Rishawi, who has been sentenced to death, if the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) releases a Jordanian military pilot held by the militant group.

Jordan's Minister of Information and Communications Affairs Mohammad al-Momani made the suggestion. However, Jordanian state TV did not mention Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.

Earlier, a group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State released a video online, with a voice identified as Japanese journalist Kenji Goto saying that IS would execute this hostage and the Jordanian pilot if female terrorist Sajida al-Rishawi was not released within the next 24 hours. According to this video, IS would exchange the Japanese hostage for al-Rishawi and did not mention the conditions for releasing the Jordanian pilot.

Russia's TASS news agency earlier quoted a source from Japan's Fuji TV channel as saying that Japan and the Islamic State (IS) militant group had reached an agreement to release journalist Kenji Goto in exchange for the freedom of an Iraqi woman named al-Rishawi, who carried out a bombing in Jordan in 2005 that killed 60 people. However, this source has not been verified, and there has been no official confirmation from Japanese and Jordanian officials about this exchange agreement./.

According to VOV