Hassan's husband shattered

2004-11-17 14:19

Baghdad - The Iraqi husband of Margaret Hassan was said to be deeply distressed on Wednesday after a video emerged showing the apparent murder of the Irish-born aid worker by her kidnappers, his family said.

Tahseen Hassan, who has pleaded with his wife's kidnappers to return her to him, is unwilling to leave his house in a modest district of Baghdad, they said.

"We are sorry, he is very depressed and is in a very bad situation," said one relative who came to the gate of the family's stone house in the Palestine neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital.

Arabic television station Al-Jazeera said on Tuesday it had received a video showing "an armed man shooting at a blindfolded woman who appears to be Margaret Hassan".

Shoo away media

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was believed the woman killed in the video was Hassan, 59, and Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his "abhorrence at the cruel treatment of someone who devoted so many years of their life to helping the people of Iraq."

Hassan, the head of aid agency Care International in Iraq, was abducted by unknown attackers on October 19 as she drove to her offices in Baghdad, which have since been closed because of the kidnapping.

One of her nephews who also came to the gate of the Baghdad house to shoo away a trickle of media, said he had not yet seen the video, which was not shown by Al-Jazeera but was being examined by British officials.

"We still have some hope," the man said.

The husband of one of Margaret's sisters had seen the images, he said, but added: "Even so, we still are not sure about its authenticity."

Hassan's Iraqi husband on Tuesday pleaded with the kidnappers to let him know where he could recover her body.

"Margaret lived with me in Iraq for 30 years," he said in an emotional statement. "She dedicated her life to serving the Iraqi people. Please, now, please return her to me."

Hassan, who held British, Iraqi and Irish nationality, was one of the highest profile victims in a scourge of kidnappings that has plagued Iraq in recent months.

She had been an aid worker in Iraq for more than 25 years, and a vehement and vocal opponent of last year's United States-led war to topple Saddam Hussein and the crippling sanctions that preceded it for more than a decade. - AFP

- AFP