Rawi claims he can produce evidence to prove he was not in Iraq at time of kidnapping, writes MICHAEL JANSEN
A BAGHDAD court is set to conduct the retrial tomorrow of Ali Lutfi Jassar al-Rawi, an Iraqi imprisoned for the kidnap and murder of Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan. She was seized from her car on her way to work in the Iraqi capital on October 19th, 2004, and executed three weeks later in spite of urgent appeals to the kidnappers to free her.
Iraqis demonstrated at Firdos Square in the centre of the capital at Hassan’s kidnap, Palestinians at Manara Square in Ramallah. Even the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demanded the release of “Madame Margaret”, the Irish- woman who had adopted Iraq as her homeland and worked tirelessly for the benefit of its hard-pressed people.
Margaret Fitzsimons was born 65 years ago tomorrow in Dublin and raised in Britain. She volunteered in the mid-1960s in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. After returning to the UK, she met and married Tahsin Hassan, an Iraqi engineer. They moved to Baghdad where she taught English at the British Council.
In 1991 she joined Care International and worked on water, sanitation, and health projects benefiting Iraqis suffering from the punitive sanctions regime kept in place after the Gulf War. In early 2003 she travelled to London and the UN headquarters in New York to argue against the US invasion.
In March 2008 Rawi, an architect, was captured by US and Iraqi forces and confessed involvement in the Hassan case as well as attempted extortion. A retrial was granted after Rawi, who claims he was tortured into making false admissions, produced a piece of evidence not submitted during his 2009 trial.
This is a passport which, he says, proves he was not in Iraq at the time of the kidnapping.
His claim is contradicted by transcripts of Rawi’s e-mails and phone calls to the British embassy in Baghdad during the autumn of 2007, demanding $1 million to reveal where Ms Hassan’s remains were buried.
He identified himself as Abu Rasha, a member of the Twentieth Revolution Brigade, a violent group trading hostages for cash. He had personal details which could only have been obtained from conversations with Hassan and he said he had helped “put her in her grave”.
Rawi was found to be associated with Mustafa Salman al-Jibouri, an Iraqi caught in 2005 with Hassan’s handbag and other personal effects.
He said these articles had been given to him by Sheikh Hussein Ahmad al-Zubayi, a preacher at a mosque in the Jadriya district. The sheikh was a member of the Sunni Muslim Scholars’ Association, said to be tied to shadowy insurgents.
Jibouri, who had personal items belonging to other people, suggesting his involvement in other kidnappings, was jailed for life. But his sentence was reduced to 45 months on appeal and he was given an amnesty before he completed this term. Zubayi has disappeared while other members of the group are either in Jordan or Syria.
Rawi also implicated Asad al-Hashemi, who was forced to resign as culture minister and flee to the US-controlled Green Zone after he was charged with commissioning an assassination attempt on Mithal al-Alusi, a politician whose two sons were killed in the attack.
Hashemi’s brother Tareq, is Iraq’s Sunni vice-president and a senior member of the Iraqiya bloc that won the largest number of seats in the March 7th parliamentary election.
Hassan’s sisters Geraldine, Deirdre and Kathryn and brother Michael have strived to gather evidence against the culprits.
Their efforts have been given a boost by the British legal firm Lovells International, which has taken up the case on a pro bono basis and hired an outstanding Iraqi lawyer, whose fees are being paid by the family.
During a lunchtime meeting on the sidelines of the Chilcot inquiry with Hassan’s sisters Deirdre and Kathryn, British prime minister Gordon Brown pledged the full support of his government and the embassy in Baghdad.
Geraldine Fitzsimons Riney told The Irish Times: "We want justice and a Christian burial for Margaret who was a practising Catholic."