Reports of Bigley being moved ‘remain unconfirmed’

THE British Embassy in Iraq has no information about news reports that hostage Ken Bigley has been handed over to another kidnapping group.

The 62-year-old Liverpool engineer was kidnapped two weeks ago in Baghdad along with two American colleagues who have since been beheaded.

The Tawhid and Jihad group, controlled by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claims to be holding him and has demanded the release of female prisoners in Iraq.

“We have no information that could confirm that Ken Bigley was handed over to another group in Iraq,” said Victoria Whitford, the embassy spokeswoman.

The hostage’s brother, Paul Bigley, told BBC TV that he heard a claim reported in Kuwait’s Al-Rai al-Aam newspaper that his brother had been transferred to a different set of kidnappers.

He telephoned “prominent” friends in Kuwait, who said they believed this was a positive sign, based on the newspaper’s accurate prediction that two female Italian hostages would be freed last week. The newspaper also said a one million dollars reward was paid to free the women.

Paul Bigley said he hoped the new group holding his brother would make a ransom demand, instead of setting political conditions for his release.

Paul Bigley said he had asked the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi for help in winning his brother’s release. He said the Gaddafi Foundation in Libya had told him it would do everything it could to help win the hostage’s freedom.

Meanwhile a militant group claimed to have killed two hostages in Iraq, one a Turk and the other an Iraqi who was a long-time resident in Italy, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera reported.

Two abducted Indonesian women, meanwhile, were freed, diplomats said.

The station said it had received video footage from a group calling itself the Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr Al-Sidiq accusing the Turkish and Iraqi hostages of being spies.

A segment broadcast on the network showed four armed militants dressed in black standing behind two kneeling men.

A militant accused the two of spying. The men were shown blindfolded and kneeling in front of a ditch before being shot.