Some 500 people attended yesterday the funeral of Fr Paulos Eskandar at Mosul’s Syrian-Orthodox St Ephrem Church. Father Eskandar, who was abducted on Monday, was founded beheaded some time later.
The clergyman’s relatives confirmed that his captors had demanded the payment of a US$ 350,000 ransom and that his church apologise for the Pope’s Regensburg remarks about Islam.
In condemning the murder, Mgr Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, confirmed “negotiations were underway but that the amount of money was too high and could not be raised. For this reason they decapitated him”.
Father Eskander’s decapitated body was found on Wednesday in Mosul’s Muharaibin neighbourhood. His arms showed signs of torture.
More – the account of a priest on what Christians are enduring in Iraq.
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