Kidnapped German family in Yemen 'dead'

The German Foreign Ministry has confirmed the death of a couple and their young child from Germany's eastern state of Saxony who were kidnapped five years ago in Yemen, a pastor close to the family said on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Saxon capital Dresden, Pastor Reinhard Pötschke quoted the ministry's letter as saying German intelligence services had "reliable" information that Johannes, Sabine and Simon Hentschel had met their deaths while being detained by their kidnappers.

He said that according to this information, the parents, who were both 36 years old at the time they were taken hostage, had been killed, while Simon, who was still under one year of age, had probably died of an infection.

Johannes and Sabine Hentschel had been living in Yemen with their three children and working with a small Christian aid organization there. They were kidnapped in June 2009 in the province of Saada along with two other German women, one South Korean woman and a British engineer. The three women were found dead shortly afterwards, while the whereabouts of the British man remains unknown.

The Hentschels' two daughters, Lydia and Anna - now ten and eight years of age - were freed in May 2010 in an operation by Saudi security forces, and have since been living with relatives in Saxony.

For a long while there was no trace of the two parents and their young son, but media reports three years ago had already spoken of their remains having been found in the area where Yemen's civil conflict is under way.

Abducting foreigners and others has long been a way for Yemeni tribesmen to gain leverage in disputes with the government. The practice has been growing rapidly since security in the already relatively lawless country deteriorated further following the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011. Many are released unharmed, often after a ransom has been paid.

tj/es (dpa, epd)