'May he rot in hell'
2006-06-08 22:13
London - The family of Ken Bigley, a Briton taken hostage and allegedly beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said on Thursday they were glad the "monster" was dead and hoped he would "rot in hell".
But Ken's brother Stan said he would rather have seen justice meted out to the leader in Iraq of the al-Qaeda terror network.
"I'm glad he's off the face of the earth, not just for my brother, but for all the people he has killed," he said.
"Ken was just one of a multitude of innocent people killed by that man. He was a monster."
But he added: "I would rather have seen him captured and made to stand in the dock and face justice for what he's done.
"If that had happened, I would like to have seen him locked up for life rather than given the death penalty.
"The death penalty is too quick for someone like him.
"He should have been made to live out his life behind bars.
"But I won't lose any sleep over him being dead."
Video
Ken Bigley, a 62-year-old engineer from Liverpool, was executed in October 2004, three weeks after his kidnapping in Baghdad, and his murder broadcast in a grisly internet video.
Some reports said Zarqawi had personally executed Bigley.
Bigley's captors - who were demanding the release of Iraqi women prisoners - released footage of him begging for his life, caged and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit like those worn by inmates of the US's Guantanamo detention centre.
They then showed him being beheaded.
Paul Bigley, another of the dead man's brothers, told the BBC: "The world has rid itself of a very evil person.
"Being a Christian, one should not be very happy about somebody's death.
"But in this particular case, quite frankly, may he rot in hell. That's where the man is."
He said he hoped Zarqawi's "assistants and associates" would meet the same fate.
- AFP