LONDON (AP) – The sister and father of an American photojournalist taken hostage by al-Qaida in Yemen have added their public pleas for his captors to spare his life.
Luke Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where he had been working as a freelance photographer for the Yemen Times.
Al-Qaida posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, 33, and a local al-Qaida commander threatening that Somers would meet his fate in three days if the United States doesn’t meet the group’s demands, which weren’t specified.
In a video posted Saturday near London, Lucy Somers describes her older brother as a romantic who “always believes the best in people.” She ends with the plea: “Please let him live.”
In a statement, Somers’ father, Michael, calls his son “a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people” and asks for his safe release.