Family has ‘absolute proof’ of Bigley death

BRITISH hostage Kenneth Bigley, who pleaded tearfully last month for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet his kidnappers’ demands, was beheaded by his captors, his brother said yesterday.

Mr Blair condemned the killers as “barbaric” and said they must not be allowed to prevail over those trying to rebuild Iraq.

Mr Bigley’s brother, Philip, said the family received “absolute proof that Ken Bigley was executed by his captors”.

“The family here in Liverpool believe that our government did everything it possibly could to secure the release of Ken in this impossible situation,” he said.

But another brother, Paul, said Mr Blair has “blood on his hands”. He made the comment in a written statement to the Stop the War Coalition, a British group that opposes the Iraq conflict.

A witness who saw a videotape sent to Abu Dhabi TV said it showed six hooded, armed men standing behind a kneeling Mr Bigley, 62.

One spoke in Arabic, saying they planned to carry out “the sentence of execution against this hostage” because the British government “did not meet our demand” to release Iraqi women detained by the US-led command in Iraq.

Afterward, the speaker took a knife from his belt and severed Mr Bigley’s head as three others held him down, the witness said on condition of anonymity. The tape ended with the killer holding up the head.

“I feel desperately sorry for Kenneth Bigley and his family who have behaved with extraordinary dignity and courage,” Mr Blair said on national television in Britain.

“I feel utter revulsion at the people who did this. Not just at the barbaric nature of the killing, but the way, frankly, they played with the situation over the past few weeks, and I feel a strong sense, as I hope others do, that the actions of these people, whether in Iraq or elsewhere, should not prevail over people like Ken Bigley, who after all only wanted to make Iraq and the world a better place,” he said.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the British government exchanged messages with Bigley’s captors to try win his release, adhering to its policy of agreeing to talk with the kidnappers but never paying a ransom or acceding to their demands.

“Messages were exchanged with the hostage-takers ... but at no stage did they abandon their demands relating to the release of women prisoners, even though they were fully aware there are no women prisoners in our custody in Iraq,” he said.