Georgi Lazov

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• Foreign hostages in Iraq#Bulgaria

Georgi Vassilev Lazov
Георги Василев Лазов
Born	Barakovo, Bulgaria
Disappeared	June 29th Mosul, Iraq
Died	July 11th Iraq
Cause of death	Beheading
Body discovered	July 13th
Nationality	Bulgarian
Occupation	truck driver

Georgi Vassilev Lazov (Георги Василев Лазов) was the third foreign hostage executed by the jihadist group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and the first Bulgarian hostage kidnapped and executed by the Iraqi jihadist group.

kidnapping and hostage video

Lazov and his coworker Ivaylo Kepov were abducted in Mosul on 29 June 2004, while hauling used cars for the company "Dimitrova - Stoimenov - Grazia - Ev". On July 9, 2004, the Arab news station Al Jazeera received and broadcast a hostage tape claiming to show the two Bulgarian men (Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov). The group behind the kidnapping called themselves the “movement of liberation and jihad” which was a smaller battalion operating under the larger group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad. In the hostage tape, the group vowed to kill both men within 48 hours if Bulgaria did not withdraw their troops from Iraq and pressure the United States to release all female prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison. The two were held for about two weeks before both were ultimately executed.

Death

On July 13, 2004, the Arab news station Al Jazeera announced that they had received an execution video showing the beheading of a Bulgarian hostage, later that day near Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad a headless corpse in an orange jumpsuit was found by Iraqi police in the Tigris River and handed over to U.S. forces, fingerprint analysis later confirmed the identity of the beheaded body to be Georgi Lazov.

The Execution video

The footage of Lazov's execution is 1:37 seconds in length and opens with Lazov kneeling in front of his captors while they read a statement (see below)

In the name of God, the Most Merciful Praise be to God, the Powerful, the Exalted, and prayers and peace be upon the Prophet and his companions who are brave when fighting. From the Unity and Jihad group to the Bulgarian government: This is the first head. It will be cut off, God willing, with the sword of truth, and we will give you another Twenty-four hours. Either you release our imprisoned sisters, or we will send you the head of this person. You have accepted for yourselves to be under the banner of obedience, so taste the outcome of your affair, and he who warned has been excused ALLAH AKBAR

After this statement was read, Lazov was beheaded. The footage was never publicly broadcast or released via Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, the only known copy of the tape was sent to Al Jazeera which later turned the footage over to the Bulgarian government, ultimately the footage was leaked online in 2023.