Husband thanks Government for intervention, wants renewed release efforts

IRAQ: The husband of Ms Margaret Hassan yesterday thanked the Government for speaking out against her kidnapping and called for further efforts to try to secure her release.

Mr Tahsin Hassan, a retired airline engineer, said he particularly appreciated the joint statement issued on Thursday by the Palestinian and Irish foreign ministers calling for his wife's release.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio early yesterday, Mr Hassan emphasised his wife's Irish roots. "She is Irish, from Irish parents, and she was born in Dublin and that's what I want to mention to the public and the media," he said.

Despite this, he said, he had spoken neither to Irish officials nor diplomats from other countries about his wife's plight. He had had no such contacts because "I don't think it is a political reason she was kidnapped.

"Until now I don't know which group is holding my wife, whether it is religious or political or any other reasons. So I am just waiting for them to call me. Then I will move accordingly."

Earlier, Mr Hassan told reporters that his wife was "not involved in politics or religion . . . She's working for a humanitarian organisation, and I ask you [ kidnappers] to release her."

In an interview with al Jazeera television, for broadcast in Iraq, Mr Hassan said: "She's Iraqi. . . She liked the people, she liked the country. That's why she was here for 30 years, otherwise she would have left."

Mr Hassan said he understood from his wife's driver, who escaped from the abduction with minor injuries, that at least four gunmen were involved in the kidnapping, one of whom was dressed in an Iraqi police uniform.

"I don't know whether it was for money or for hatred," said Mr Hassan, adding that he had warned his wife about the risk of abduction.

"I said to her: 'You are a foreigner. I know you have Iraqi documents and an Iraqi passport, but you look foreign. If someone wanted to kidnap you, they would see you as a foreigner, not as an Iraqi'."

Ms Hassan had been a fierce critic of sanctions imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf War and had addressed the United Nations on the issue.