Amman: Jordan said Thursday that it would not release an Iraqi female jihadist until it receives proof that a Jordanian pilot held by Daesh is alive.
Daesh has threatened to execute the airman unless Jordan frees Sajida al-Rishawi by sunset Thursday in exchange for Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.
"Rishawi is still in Jordan and the exchange will happen once we receive the proof of life that we asked for," Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani said.
Swap on hold
Jordan earlier said it had received no assurance that one of its pilots captured by Deash insurgents was safe and that it would go ahead with a proposed prisoner swap only if he was freed.
The fate of air force pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh was thought to be tied to that of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, a veteran war reporter who is also being held by the insurgent group.
A video was released on Tuesday purporting to show the Japanese national saying he had 24 hours to live unless Jordan released Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman on death row for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack.
Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said Jordan was ready to release al-Rishawi if Kasaesbeh was spared, but made clear that she was still being held until the pilot was freed.
"It's not true she has been released. Her release is tied to freeing our pilot," Momani told Reuters. He made no mention of Goto.
Goto wife's appeal
In Tokyo, the wife of a Japanese journalist thought to be held by Daesh insurgents in Syria urged the Japanese and Jordanian governments to work for his release shortly before a deadline set by his captors expired.
"I fear that this is the last chance for my husband, and we now have only a few hours left to secure his release and the life of (Jordanian air force pilot) Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh," Kenji Goto's wife Rinko said in a statement to Reuters and other media.
"I beg the Jordanian and Japanese government(s) to understand that the fates of both men are in their hands," she said in her first public comments since Goto appeared in a purported Islamic State video on Jan. 20 with fellow captive Haruna Yukawa, whose apparently beheaded body appeared in a subsequent video on Saturday.
Goto said that the pilot would be killed immediately if Jordan did not release would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, a death-row prisoner, by the deadline.
In a previous statement, Goto had said his own life depended on the woman's release.
Although Jordan said it was willing to swap Rishawi for the pilot, a government minister said an hour before the deadline passed that Amman was still waiting for proof that the pilot was alive.
