A video purported
to be from al-Qaeda's North African affiliate has demanded that Germany free a
woman jailed on terror charges in return for a German hostage it says it is
holding.
Al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb's video was obtained by a Mauritanian news agency.
In the video, the
hostage says his life is at risk if the woman is not freed.
Edgar Fritz
Raupach, an engineer, was kidnapped by gunmen near the northern Nigerian city
of Kano two months ago.
"We inform
you that that your compatriot Edgar Fritz Raupach is a prisoner of the fighters
of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," the video said.
The group said it
is seeking the release of Umm Seifullah al-Ansari, or Filiz Gelowicz, a
Turkish-born woman jailed a year ago in Germany for aiding terrorism.
Her husband,
German national Fritz Gelowicz, a convert to Islam, was among four Islamists
imprisoned in March 2010 for plotting to attack US facilities in Germany.
At the time, the
judge said the men, known as the "Sauerland group", had dreamed of
"mounting a second 11 September 2001".
The statement
claimed the Filiz Gelowicz was suffering "inhumane treatment" in a
German prison.
Correspondents say
the private Mauritanian news agency which sourced the video, ANI, frequently
publishes statements by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The group, led by
Abdel Moussab Abdelwadoud, has kidnapped Europeans in the past.
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