Tomislav Salopek (2 June 1984 - 12 August 2015) was a Croatian expatriate worker in Egypt, kidnapped and subsequently executed by the ISIL-affiliated Sinai Province. This was the first such incident affecting a Croatian citizen.
On 12 August 2015, 22 days after his abduction, Sinai Province published a still image purporting to show Salopek's decapitated body. This has led to widespread international attention and condemnation, and was the first such hostage execution to take place in Egypt, raising further concerns about safety of foreigners in the country. Before Salopek, Wilayah Sinai has also claimed responsibility for the killing of American oil worker William Henderson in 2014, and has perpetrated violent attacks against Egyptian security forces and civilians.
Tomislav Salopek was a Croatian topographer born in Vrpolje, a small town in Croatia near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the Secondary Geodetic Technical School and was a geodetic technician. He was employed at the Zagreb Geophysics Institute. In addition to Croatia, he worked in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Tunisia. He had a wife, Nataà ¡a, and two children. Salopek has previously survived a near-kidnapping in Syria.
Salopek was working for Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) at the time when was kidnapped on 22 July 2015, while he was on his way to CGG's business site near Cairo. An armed group intercepted Salopek and seized his vehicle. The group drove off with him in an unknown direction.
Salopek's whereabouts were unknown for the following two weeks. On 5 August 2015, a video titled A Message to the Egyptian Government was uploaded to several video services in which Wilayah Sinai is seen detaining a man who self-identified as Tomislav Salopek. Salopek was kneeling while a masked man with a knife in his hand stood beside him. He was forced to read a note stating that ISIL demands Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to release "Muslim women" from Egyptian prisons, warning that he will be executed within 48 hours if their demands are not met.
A CGG spokesman later stated that the kidnappers had contacted the company via e-mail, after first contacting Salopek's wife, and demanded tens of millions of euros for Salopek's release. The company repeatedly urged Salopek's captors to give them confirmation that he was still alive. It is suspected that Salopek was first kidnapped by one group that asked CGG for ransom, and that they eventually, for unknown reasons, handed him over to ISIL.
The Croatian government immediately set off a diplomatic initiative in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusiàlater stated that many other countries also helped, including two of Croatia's close allies, the United States and Germany, as well as France, the United Kingdom and other European Union member states. Russia and Serbia also offered their support. Simultaneously with Salopek's kidnapping, the opening of the New Suez Canal was to take place. President of France François Hollande stated that a mission to locate Salopek was underway in a speech at the canal's opening ceremony.
When the footage was published, Vesna PusiÃÂ, Salopek's wife Nataà ¡a, and agents of the Croatian Secret Service traveled to Cairo, where Pusiàmet with her Egyptian colleague Sameh Shoukry. Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-KitaroviÃÂ, a former NATO official, spoke with Egyptian President Sisi. The president of the main organization of Muslims in Croatia, Aziz Effendi HasanoviÃÂ, sent a "call for help to the Arab Republic of Egypt to save an innocent life". He contacted, among others, Egyptian government officials and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam.
In the next few days, four Egyptian security services in cooperation with the Egyptian army and the police launched a major rescue operation. The entire operation was personally led by the Egyptian Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghafar. Security forces searched a series of terrorist strongholds in the cities of Sheikh Zuweid, Rafah and Arish, as well as locations the Egypt-Libya and GazaâÂÂEgypt borders.
On 12 August 2015, ISIL supporters uploaded a photograph purporting to show the decapitated body of Salopek to social media platforms. Buried in the sand next to the body was the black standard used by the militant group. They declared that his execution was in retaliation for Croatia's participation in the international coalition against ISIL. Croatia, an EU and NATO member as well as a noted peacekeeping force, was supplying small arms to governmental anti-ISIL forces in the Levant, akin to other member countries of aforementioned organizations. Immediately after the image's release, Croatian President Grabar-KitaroviÃÂ canceled all her activities for the day and held an emergency press briefing.
According to claims of Egyptian intelligence service, Salopek was kidnapped by Islamist organization Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna and taken to Libya, where they subsequently killed him. In November 2015, Egyptian authorities proclaimed that they eliminated a suspect of Salopek's murder Ahraf Ali al-Gharabali. Salopek's body was never found nor returned to the family.
Croatian President Grabar-KitaroviÃÂ said: "I want to say firmly, as long as there is one glimmer of hope and one ounce of a chance that our Tomislav is still alive we will continue working, searching and trying to save his life. I would like to express gratitude to all those who are working on this case. First of all to the Croatian institutions and second, to all friendly countries and agencies, including many friends from Arab countries who are trying to save Tomislav's life."
Prime Minister Zoran MilanoviÃÂ called an emergency press conference over the execution. He stated that Croatia "cannot 100% be certain" the photo is authentic, but that "it looks horrific."
Following the image's publication, many state officials condemned Salopek's execution: