Families plead for lives of ISIS hostages as swap hopes fade

TOKYO – A deadline of sunset Thursday for a possible prisoner swap purportedly set by the Islamic State group holding a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian military pilot passed with no sign of whether the two men were still alive.

Japanese officials had no new progress to report today after a late night that ended with the Jordanian government saying it would only release an al-Qaida prisoner from death row if it got proof the airman was alive.

“There is nothing I can tell you,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. He reiterated Japan’s “strong trust” in the Jordanians to help save the Japanese hostage, freelance journalist Kenji Goto.

Suga said the government had been in close contact with Goto’s wife, Rinko Jogo, who released a statement overnight pleading for her husband’s life.

“I fear that this is the last chance for my husband, and we now have only a few hours left,” Jogo said in a statement released through the Rory Peck Trust, a London-based organization for freelance journalists.

An audio message purportedly posted online Thursday by the Islamic State group said the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, would be killed if Sajida al-Rishawi, the al-Qaida prisoner, was not delivered to the Turkish border by sunset Thursday, Iraq time. There was no mention of whether the pilot or Goto would be traded for the woman.

The authenticity of the recording could not be verified independently by the Associated Press. But the possibility of a swap was raised Wednesday when Jordan said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi for the pilot.

After sundown in the Middle East, with no news on the fate of either the pilot or Goto, the families’ agonizing wait dragged on.

In the Jordanian capital, Amman, the pilot’s brother Jawdat al-Kaseasbeh, said his family had “no clue” about where the negotiations stood.

“We received no assurances from anyone that he is alive,” al-Kaseasbeh, told the AP. “We are waiting, just waiting.”