Islamic State 'sentenced' U.S. hostage to death last year: activist

By Alistair Bell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The young American
hostage who Islamic State says was killed in a
Jordanian air strike was condemned to death by
the militant group last year, according to an
American Muslim activist.
Islamic State seized aid worker Kayla Mueller in
2013 in northern Syria and initially gave her a
"life sentence" in retaliation for the jailing in
Texas of a Pakistani woman whose case is a
well-known cause among Islamist militants, said
activist Mauri Saalakhan, who leads a U.S.
campaign to free the Pakistani.
The militant group said on Friday that Mueller, a
26-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, was killed
when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building
where she was being held. Jordan expressed
doubt about the claim and U.S. authorities said
they could not confirm it.
Mueller's family had long asked U.S. officials,
aid groups and media outlets, including Reuters,
not to use her name for fear the publicity could
induce Islamic State to harm her.
After Islamic State's claim on Friday, Mueller's
parents issued a public statement on Friday
night, identifying their daughter by name and
saying they remained hopeful she was still alive.
Mueller's family has not given details of any
communication with the militant group and
Saalakhan's information could not be verified by
Reuters.
Saalakhan said that last summer, as Islamic
State extended its control over parts of Iraq and
Syria, the group threatened to kill Mueller.
Saalakhan first mentioned the "sentencing" of
Mueller in an open letter to the group he
released last year.
On July 12, militants told Mueller's family she
would be executed in 30 days if Pakistani
neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui were not released
or the American's family did not pay a ransom
of 5 million euros ($6.6 million), he said.
The information about the threats came from a
representative of Mueller's family, Saalakhan
said.
Islamic State apparently did not carry out its
death sentence after Saalakhan and an Arizona
pastor wrote open letters to the group.
Siddiqui's family rejected Islamic State's attempt
to link the two cases and said it did not want
Mueller to suffer.
"I believe that the messages that went out after
that threat was conveyed, both from Aafia's
family and from us, I do believe those messages
made their way to ISIS," said Saalakhan.
Mueller's family had a communications pipeline
to the militant group, Saalakhan said, without
elaborating.
Siddiqui is serving 86 years in a prison medical
center in Texas. A jury convicted her in 2010 of
attempting to shoot and kill a group of FBI
agents, U.S. soldiers and interpreters who were
about to interrogate her in Afghanistan for
alleged links to al Qaeda.
The White House has refused to negotiate for
the release of hostages or pay ransoms
demanded by Islamic State.
Mueller was seized while leaving a Doctors
Without Borders hospital in the northern Syrian
city of Aleppo in August 2013. She had a record
of volunteering abroad and was moved by the
plight of civilians in Syria's civil war.
She had worked for a Turkish aid organization
on the Syrian border and volunteered for
schools and aid organizations abroad including
in both in the West Bank and Israel as well as in
Dharamsala, India, where she taught English to
Tibetan refugees.
(Reporting by Alistair Bell; Editing by Doina
Chiacu and Frances Kerry)