DHAKA: Steven Sotloff, the American journalist and holder of Israeli citizenship who was brutally executed by Islamic State militants last week, was sold to the extremist jihadist group by a Syrian rebel organization.

The spokesperson for the Sotloff family told CNN on Monday, The Jerusalem Post publishes this report on Tuesday.

‘For the first time, we can say Steven was sold at the border,’ Barak Barfi, the spokesperson, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

‘Steven’s name was on a list that he had been responsible for the bombing of a hospital. This was false, activists spread his name around.’

‘We believe that these so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support, one of them sold him probably for something between $25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS, and that was the reason he was captured,’ Barfi told Cooper.

Barfi said that he learned this information from ‘sources on the ground’.

‘Somebody at the border crossing made a phone call to ISIS and they set up a fake checkpoint with many people and Steven and his people that he went in with could not escape,’ he said.

Barfi also criticized the Obama administration for ‘inaccurate statements’ that have been attributed to government officials who have commented on the case.

BDST: 1451 HRS, SEP 09, 2014