Bigley is alive - brother

2004-09-26 21:36

Brighton - The brother of the British hostage held in Iraq said here on Sunday he had received information that engineer Kenneth Bigley was still alive.

"I have received information this evening that Ken is alive," Paul Bigley told members of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party at their annual conference in Brighton.

"Help me keep him alive," he said, speaking by telephone from the Netherlands to a group of Labour members opposed to the Iraq war.

"Mr Blair's silence for the past 10 days is a kiss of death to my brother," he said.

"Mr Blair, you're doing it the wrong way." His comments followed a statement a short time earlier by the director of London's Islamic Observatory which also said the hostage was still alive.

"We have learned, through an Iraqi envoy who told Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) about our appeal, that Kenneth Bigley is still alive," Yasser al-Serri told AFP, referring to a plea he issued last week for the hostage to be freed.

Unity and Holy War is the name of the group holding Bigley, headed by alleged al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.

False hope

Britain's foreign office earlier said it could not confirm reports that Bigley was still alive.

Two envoys from Britain's leading Muslim organisation arrived in Iraq Saturday to try to secure the release of Bigley, who was abducted on September 16 along with two American colleagues who have since been beheaded.

Earlier Blair said false hope should not be raised about the 62-year-old engineer.

"There is no point in raising false hopes because of the nature of the people we're dealing with," Blair said from Brighton.

"We're doing everything we properly and legitimately can."

- AFP