Tegucigalpa, July 11 (IANS/EFE): Honduran authorities confirmed Wednesday that the remains found this week in the northern part of the country are those of a journalist who was kidnapped June 24.

"We want to confirm the find and, with the 100 percent criterion of the scientific test that I described, the prosecutor's office announces that the person found is citizen Anibal Barrow," chief prosecutor Roberto Ramirez told a press conference.

Barrow, a 58-year-old engineer and university lecturer, directed a program on a local television channel.

On the day of his abduction, near the Metropolitan Olympic Stadium in the northern metropolis of San Pedro Sula, he was riding in an SUV with two relatives and his driver.

His captors released the relatives of the journalist but took him to a sugar cane plantation, which is apparently where they killed and then dismembered him.

National Police director Juan Carlos Bonilla told reporters that Barrow's remains had been found Tuesday afternoon.

Thanks to information provided by a participant in the crime who decided to cooperate with authorities, police have been able to identify "eight people who participated directly in the execution of citizen Anibal Barrow", prosecutor Ramirez said.

Honduras' human rights commissioner, Ramon Custodio, said that Barrow's death "should be a wakeup call to everyone's civic conscience".

Barrow is the 36th journalist slain in Honduras in the last decade.