Fresh appeal to Hassan kidnappers

The husband of kidnapped aid agency chief Margaret Hassan today made a fresh appeal to her Iraqi captors to release her.

Mrs Hassan appeared on Friday in a wrenching televised statement begging for her life and urging British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw British troops from Iraq.

Today, her Iraqi husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, appealed to the kidnappers to free her “in the name of Islam”.

“It hurts to watch my wife cry,” Mr Hassan said on Al-Arabiya television. “This scene has saddened and worried her friends and loved ones.

“I plead with you, in the name of Islam and Arabism – while we are in the most sacred Islamic month – that my wife and beloved return to me.”

Mrs Hassan, 59, who has British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship, has has spent nearly half her life delivering food and medicine in Iraq.

She was seized on Tuesday in western Baghdad as she rode to work in her car.