A caption underneath said that the “Croatian hostage, whose country is involved in the war against the Islamic State, was killed after the deadline passed and his [Croatian] government and the Egyptian government neglected him”.
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Though not officially confirmed, the picture showed a man dressed in the same beige jumpsuit that Salopek wore in a prior video released by his cruel captives.
He said he was married to Natasa with two kids and that he worked for Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG).
Kidnappers reportedly yanked Salopek’s driver out of the Croatian’s vehicle, then took off with him in a carjacking.
“She rejected that the life of an innocent man who is not responsible for other detainees be negotiated”, said Doaa el-Taweel.
State-run Croatian news agency HINA quoted a foreign ministry source as saying it “does not have confirmation that abducted Croatian citizen Tomislav Salopek has been killed”.
Egypt’s Al-Azhar institute, the top centre of religious learning for Sunni Muslims, has condemned the apparent killing, calling it a “demonic act” contrary to all religion.
The Croatian government could not confirm Mr Salopek’s death “with 100% certainty”, Prime Minister Milanovic said.
Tomislav Salopek was in Egypt working for a French oil and gas company.
“Egypt is trying to increase foreign direct investment but it’s going to make it hard to bring foreigners who want to work as part of that investment because of concerns over risk”, says Angus Blair, president of the Signet Institute, an economic and political think tank in Cairo.
The abduction and purported killing were unprecedented in Egypt, which is battling an ISIS insurgency in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, according to the AFP.
Late last year, the US State Department said Croatia had contributed military supplies to the anti-ISIL efforts.
SITE said the photo was distributed on Twitter on August 12.
The group claimed responsibility for a bombing last month targeting the Italian consulate in Cairo, in which a passerby was killed. ISIS released another video, circulated Wednesday, showing the aftermath of his execution. They include US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.
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Local media reported Salopek was kidnapped west of Cairo, raising concerns that the group, most of whose attacks have been in the restive northern Sinai, may increasingly target the capital. That came just days after another bomb killed Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat in an upscale Cairo neighborhood.
