Hostage's wife begs for mercy

The wife of British hostage Ken Bigley, who is being held in Iraq, made an emotional plea to his kidnappers for mercy today after two of his American colleagues were beheaded.

Bigley's Thai wife Sombat Bigley’s plea came one day after a videotape appeared on an Islamic website in which Mr Bigley was seen sobbing and repeatedly pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life.

Sombat said she had seen her husband’s appeal.

“We have been married for seven years and I love him very much … I desperately want to be reunited with my husband. I plea for your mercy now, and beg that you release Ken so that I may be with him again,” Mrs Bigley said, reading out a Thai-language statement in Bangkok.

She also distributed a written, English-language translation of her statement, but did not take any questions.

Bigley and Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley - who worked for a Gulf construction company - were kidnapped from their house in Baghdad last week.

“My husband Ken is an ordinary, hardworking, family man who wanted to help the people of Iraq amongst whom he has made many friends. As a loving wife I beg you once more for mercy,” Sombat said.

The decapitated bodies of Bigley’s fellow captives were found later. Armstrong’s beheading was shown in a videotape that appeared on an Islamic website on Monday, the same day his body was found. A decapitated body, identified as that of Hensley’s, was found in Baghdad on Wednesday.

The militant group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad said it kidnapped the three, and had demanded the release of all Iraqi women prisoners held in Iraq.

Mr Bigley had planned to retire in Thailand with Sombat in the next few months.

In the videotape plea, Bigley addresses Mr Blair, saying “I am nothing to you. Here’s just one person living in the United Kingdom, that’s all, with a family like you, like your family, your children, your boys, your wife.”

“Please, you can help. I know you can,” he said.