Disabled Frenchwoman's Kidnappers Demanding Cash for Her Body

The Somali kidnappers of a disabled Frenchwoman who died after being snatched from her home in Kenya are demanding a ransom for the return of her body, France said on Thursday.

"The hostage-takers are even trying to sell the remains, it could not be more despicable," French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told the i-TELE news network.

France said Wednesday that 66-year-old Marie Dedieu, who was kidnapped on October 1 and taken to Somalia, had died in the hands of her captors, most probably because they had refused to provide her medication.

Dedieu had been in a wheelchair and suffering from cancer.

Marie Dedieu and her Kenyan boyfriend John Lepapa are pictured together at an undisclosed location before Dedieu was kidnapped from Ras-Kitau on Manda island and held hostage, in this undated handout photo released to Reuters on October 3, 2011. An armed gang with links to neighbouring lawless Somalia kidnapped the 66-year-old wheelchair bound French woman on October 1, 2011 from Manda island, the heart of one of Kenya's most popular tourist destinations, in the second attack on foreign visitors in less than a month.

"Seizing a woman of this age, who is sick and paralysed, and not giving her her medication, allowing her to develop septicaemia from which she apparently died, and then proposing to sell her remains! These are not people who deserve anything but contempt," Longuet said.

He said the French military was not planning any action against the kidnappers in Somalia because they were "a small band, a small minority, an exception who dishonour this territory."

A gang of 10 armed men seized Dedieu from Manda Island in Kenya's Lamu archipelago earlier this month and fled by sea to Somalia, fighting off an attempt by Kenya's navy to stop them.

France has denounced her death as an "an act of unqualified barbarism" and demanded the immediate and unconditional return of her remains.

Kenya has blamed Islamist Shebab rebels in Somalia for a spate of recent kidnappings of foreigners and this week launched an unprecedented incursion into Somalia against the militants.

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French First Lady Sarkozay Give Birth to a Baby Girl

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrive at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on December 5, 2010 in New Delhi, India. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a four-day working visit to India and is expected to chase lucrative French-Indian trade contracts. He is also expected to seek support for his G20 agenda, on his first visit to a G20 member state, after taking over the presidency of the G20 group. It has been reported that Bruni has given birth to a baby girll. This is her first child with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy waits for the spouses of the Heads of Delegation participating in the G8 Summit on May 26, 2011 in Deauville, France. Heads of the of the world's wealthiest nations have gathered in Deauville to meet for a two-day G8 summit, chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with the Arab spring expected to top the agenda.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, leaves a clinic, Wednesday Oct.19, 2011 in Paris, and where his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is reportedly expected to give birth. 

Cameramen and television journalists gather near the maternity clinic, Clinique de la Muette, in Paris October 19, 2011. French media reports that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is at the clinic. Bruni was believed to be close to giving birth to her first child with husband President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday, in what would be the first baby to be born to a French presidential couple in office.

This is a Friday, May 13, 2011 file photo of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace in Paris. French media reports Wednesday Oct 19 2011 say first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has given birth to a baby girl _ the first infant born to a sitting president in modern-day France. President Nicolas Sarkozy was returning from a meeting in Frankfurt on the euro debt crisis when the child was born around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a BFM report.

In this Sept.17, 2011 file photo, France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy waves in the gardens of the Elysee Palace in Paris.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy walk in the gardens of the Elysee Palace in Paris during 28th edition of National Heritage Days September 17, 2011.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy attend the traditional Christmas Party held at the Elysee Palace in Paris in this December 16, 2009 file photo.

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