A Baghdad court has sentenced an Iraqi man to life imprisonment in connection with the abduction and killing of Dublin-born aid worker Margaret Hassan in 2004.
A court official said that Mustafa Salman had been charged with aiding and abetting the kidnappers.
Two other defendants in the case were freed.
Statement from Margaret Hassan's family
The judge said Salman had received a plastic bag from an associate who asked him to hold on to it. Four months later Iraqi security forces raided Salman's home and found Hassan's purse and documents in the bag.
The Care International worker, who had lived in Iraq for 30 years and was married to an Iraqi, was abducted while travelling to work in Baghdad in October 2004 and was later killed. Her body has not been found. No group claimed responsibility for the abduction or the killing
Ms Hassan (59) held British, Irish
and Iraqi nationality and spoke fluent Arabic. In two harrowing videos she pleaded for her life and for British troops to leave Iraq.
Her kidnapping came at the height of a wave of abductions of foreigners in Iraq, including two Italian aid workers, the British contractor Kenneth Bigley, who was also killed, and two American contractors working with him.
In May 2005, US and Iraqi forces arrested several people in a raid southeast of Baghdad believed to be linked to Hassan's murder. Police said at the time that 11 people had been detained, and that five had admitted complicity in the killing.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern appointed a lawyer to monitor the trial in Baghdad. Ms Hassan's family yesterday claimed she died because the British government refused to speak to her kidnappers.
Her family said that during her captivity, four calls were made to her husband Tahseen from the kidnappers, using Margaret's mobile phone, demanding to speak to a member of the British embassy. However he had been told by the British that they would not speak to the hostage-takers.
"We believe that the refusal by the British government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers cost our sister her life," Deirdre, Geraldine, Kathryn and Michael Fitzsimons said in a statement released yesterday. "Margaret, who was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq, was sacrificed for the political ends of Blair and Bush."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today it would be "of benefit" for the British Foreign Office to give a public statement about the circumstances surrounding Mrs Hassan's kidnapping.
"In order to clear the air and to show how difficult it is ... I think something like that would be of benefit," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern
Mr Ahern added: "My understanding was that people had been in contact with [Mrs Hassan's husband] but that at the time it was important to a large extent to keep as silent as possible her British involvement, to emphasise that she worked with CARE International, to emphasise that she was an Iraqi citizen and worked for the betterment of Iraqi people and also that she was an Irish citizen and born in Ireland.
"I can understand the strong feelings of Margaret Hassan's family, because they have articulated them to us as well.
"To a large extent, we were helpless because all we could provide were assurances that this lady was indeed Irish. We have no people on the ground."
Asked if the British authorities could have done more, Mr Ahern said: "It is not for me to criticise. In all the incidents that have taken place, we have got full co-operation, but what happens on the ground is another issue and not something I have personal knowledge of."
Additional reporting: PA