IRAQ: Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has appointed a lawyer in Baghdad to monitor the trial which opens today of three men accused of the kidnap and murder of Dublin-born aid worker Margaret Hassan.
Ms Hassan's family yesterday claimed she died because the British government refused to speak to her kidnappers. The Care International worker was taken hostage in Baghdad in October 2004 and killed nearly a month later. Her body has not been found.
Her family said that during her captivity, four calls were made to her husband Tahseen from the kidnappers, using Margaret's mobile phone, demanding to speak to a member of the British embassy. However he had been told by the British that they would not speak to the hostage-takers.
"We believe that the refusal by the British government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers cost our sister her life," Deirdre, Geraldine, Kathryn and Michael Fitzsimons said in a statement released yesterday. "Margaret, who was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq, was sacrificed for the political ends of Blair and Bush."
Ms Hassan had British, Irish and Iraqi nationality and had lived in Iraq for 30 years.
The family also said they had begged British foreign secretaries Jack Straw and Margaret Beckett, to arrange for the men to be interviewed by British military police. "They have refused this request even though this is the only way that Margaret's remains will be found and we can bring her home to be buried with the dignity she deserves," they said.