MIAMI (AP) - An American freelance journalist held hostage and threatened with death by Islamic militants wanted to tell the world through his writing about oppressed people in the Middle East, his mother said in a video released Wednesday.
Steven Sotloff, 31, was last seen in August 2013 in Syria. He was threatened with death by militants from the Islamic State on a video released last week unless the U.S. stopped air strikes on the group in Iraq. The same video showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley.
In her video, Shirley Sotloff, who lives in the Miami area, appealed to her son's captors to have mercy on a man sympathetic to the suffering of Muslims. "He is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak," she said.
The new video marked the first detailed public comments the family has made since Steven Sotloff went missing. Several U.S. officials, including U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., say they have been working behind the scenes to find out more about him and try to secure his release.
"This is a tragic situation and we have seen that (the Islamic State) has no respect for human life," Ros-Lehtinen said.
At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters he did not know whether President Barack Obama had seen Shirley Sotloff's video, but he said the administration is "deeply engaged" in trying to gain release of all Americans held hostage in the Middle East.
"She obviously, as is evident from the video, feels desperate about the safety and well-being of her son, and understandably so, and that is why our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Sotloff's family at this very difficult and trying time."
On his Twitter feed, Sotloff described himself as a "stand-up philosopher from Miami. Currently in Libya." He also mentions several publications in which his work appeared, including Time and Foreign Policy magazines.
Before Sotloff was shown on the Islamic State video, only a few friends and family knew he had been taken hostage, said Sotloff's former roommate at the University of Central Florida, Emerson Lotzia. His parents didn't want anyone to go public.