Woman hostage executed

2004-11-16 21:53

Baghdad - Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said Tuesday it had received a videotape showing the slaying of a woman believed to be British hostage Margaret Hassan, but would not broadcast the footage.

"We don't show acts of killing," said Jihad Ballout, Al-Jazeera spokesperson.

"We've never done it before, outside war."

He said the station received the tape a few days ago, but was not sure of its authenticity until recently.

He had initially said the station would broadcast parts of the video.

Ballout said the video showed a hooded person firing a pistol into the head of a blindfolded woman, wearing an orange jumpsuit.

"She was presumed to be Mrs Hassan," he told The Associated Press.

He said the station had shown the tape to British officials.

"We invited British diplomatic officials to come and view it in Doha, Qatar, with the aim of helping us ascertain whether it was Mrs Hassan or not," he said.

Hassan, an Irish-British-Iraqi citizen who heads Care International in Iraq, was abducted October 19 from her car in Baghdad. No group has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.

Care 'in mourning'

Care said in a statement: "It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed. ... The whole of Care is in mourning."

Her four brothers and sisters said they believe Hassan is dead.

"Our hearts are broken," they said in a statement.

"We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but we now have to accept that Margaret has probably gone and at last her suffering has ended."

The family did not indicate why they now believed Hassan was dead, but said: "Those who are guilty of this atrocious act, and those who support them, have no excuses."

Body in Fallujah

On Sunday, US marines found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman on a street in a Fallujah during the US assault on the insurgent stronghold.

Besides Hassan, the only Western woman known held was Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq who was seized last month.

On November 2, Al-Jazeera reported that Hassan's kidnappers had threatened to turn her over to al-Qaeda-linked militants notorious for beheading hostages unless Britain agreed within 48 hours to pull its troops from Iraq.

But three days later, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda-linked group called for Hassan's release and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.

Born in Ireland, Hassan also held British and Iraqi citizenship. She lived in Iraq for 30 years and married an Iraqi.

In its statement, her family said: "Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war.

"To commit such a crime against anyone is unforgivable.

"But we cannot believe how anybody could do this to our kind, compassionate sister.

"The gap she leaves will never be filled."

- AP