French hostage was murdered Al Qaeda-style, autopsy shows

French hostage Philippe Verdon was murdered by a bullet in the back of the head, the autopsy on his body has revealed. His family and friends believe he may have been killed because he was ill, although his Al Qaeda kidnappers say he was executed because of France’s intervention in Mali. 

Philippe Verdon's father, Jean-Pierre Verdon, and Serge Lazarevic's daughter, Diane Lazarevic AFP/Bertrand Guay

"After the return of the body to France, the autopsy... was able to establish that Philippe Verdon was murdered by being shot in the head," the Paris prosecutors' office said on Thursday.

Verdon suffered from an ulcer and tachycardia, an abnormally fast heartbeat, and there was speculation that he had died from his ailments and that his killing had been staged.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), which claimed responsibility for his kidnapping, announced that it had killed him on 19 March, claiming it was a reprisal for Operation Serval, the French military intervention in Mali.

Verdon’s body was found on 4 July and flown to France on Wednesday.

Although the autopsy confirms that he had been killed in a manner often employed by Aqim, supporters still believe that his illness may have been a factor in his death.

“Perhaps he was killed because he was really ill,” said support committee chair Pascal Lupart.

They believe that Verdon’s captors had to flee the French-led advance into northern Mali and found their sickly captive slowed their flight.

The 53-year-old businessman was taken from a hotel in north-eastern Mali in November 2011 along with a colleague, Serge Lazarevic, whose current fate seems to be unclear.

Aqim claimed that the two were French spies, while their friends and family they were looking into the possibility of opening a cement works in the area around Hombori.

Verdon had already been held hostage for six months in south Sudan in 1991, thrown out of Madagascar in 2010 and briefly imprisoned in the Comoros islands in 2003.

Confirming Verdon's death earlier this week, French President François Hollande vowed everything would be done to bring the murderers and kidnappers to justice.

At least seven French citizens are being held hostage in Africa, with another two in Syria.