Peter Fabricius
WITH less than a day to go before the deadline set to kill hostage Pierre Korkie, his wife, Yolande, has issued a final emotional appeal through YouTube to his al-Qaeda kidnappers in Yemen to set him free.
Holding hands with her son, Pieter-Ben, 16, and her daughter, Lize-Mari, 14, and wearing a scarf to cover her head, Yolande Korkie urged his kidnappers to “please show compassion” and release him.
“On this evening of this deadline given by you, I am again pleading with you to release my husband, Pierre.
“Pierre is an innocent and honest person who served the poor people through his teaching.”
She made the appeal on a short video which Gift of the Givers Foundation director Imtiaz Sooliman has put on the internet as a final desperate effort to communicate with the kidnappers, who have not made contact for 10 days.
Friends of the Korkies have managed to raise little more than R1 million, far short of the $3m (R34m) ransom demanded for his release.