Trial delay may help search for aid worker’s body

THE family of an Irish-born aid worker who was kidnapped and murdered in Iraq have described the adjournment of her killer’s trial as a boost to the continued efforts to locate her remains.

Margaret Hassan’s Irish relatives said the postponement of the retrial — announced yesterday in Baghdad — would give her family more time to fight the appeal of the man jailed for her killing.

Dublin-born Ms Hassan, 59, was the director of humanitarian group Care International in Iraq and was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2004 and shot dead under a month later. Her body has never been found.

Her younger sister Geraldine Riney told the Irish Examiner yesterday that the adjournment of the retrial until April 18 would give the family more time to submit important evidence.

The main goal was also to find Ms Hassan’s remains, said her family.

“We’re glad of the adjournment because the evidence can now be assembled and submitted to the court. We’re happy with it, that’s what we were hoping for. It will be a more successful outcome when we get all the evidence submitted.”

Ali Lutfi Jassar was jailed for life in 2009 for his part in Ms Hassan’s abduction and killing but appealed the conviction and won the right to a retrial.

His retrial was set to take place at the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad yesterday but has been put back to later this month.

Irish relatives would not be travelling to Baghdad for the retrial because it was “too dangerous”, said Ms Riney, but the family had a lawyer working for them in the Iraqi capital.

Speaking from her home in Kenmare, Co Kerry, the aid worker’s sister added: “This man claims he knows where Margaret’s remains are. We’d like justice but this has been our goal for the last five-and-a-half years.

“We’ve been quietly working away all the time on this case, assembling everything we can and trying to find Margaret’s remains.”

Iraqi architect Ali Lutfi Jassar was arrested in 2008 after contacting the British embassy in Baghdad and demanding $1 million (€740,000) in return for leading authorities to Ms Hassan’s body.

He told embassy officials a key detail about the aid worker that only relatives and friends would know.

But Jassar told a court last year he had been tortured and forced to confess to the charges, which resulted in his appeal being granted.

He has since claimed he has a new alibi and was out of the country at the time of the killing.

There have been fears Jassar may have his sentence cut or be released, which could stop him from telling the authorities where her body is located.

Ms Hassan’s sister Geraldine said the family still thought about Margaret on a daily basis.

“We remember her every day because nearly every day we are working on this case,” Geraldine said.

“We were a very close family. Every single day I remember Margaret.”