Body of tragic kidnap victim now ‘for sale’

Kidnappers who seized a disabled French woman, who later died in Somalia, are now trying to sell her body, France’s defence minister has said.

Marie Dedieu, 66 – a cancer sufferer – was abducted in the early hours of 1 October from a private house on the island of Manda on Kenya’s northern coast. She died, probably after her captors failed to give her the medication she needed.

“You have to know that the hostage takers are even looking to sell her body …It is completely disgusting,” French defence minister Gerard Longuet said.

“Letting her get blood poisoning, which is what she probably died of, and then trying to sell her body [shows] that these people only deserve contempt,” he added.

Foreign minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday Paris had been trying to secure Ms Dedieu’s freedom and to pass medication to her captors, but the kidnappers had not given it to her.