US 'sabotaged' hostage deal

The brother of British hostage Kenneth Bigley today launched a bitter attack on the US government for "sabotaging" moves to free him.

His criticism came hours after his brother, 62, was seen begging Tony Blair to help save his life in a video released by his terrorist captors.

Paul Bigley said his brother, a civil engineer, had been granted a "stay of execution" when Iraqi authorities announced yesterday that they would free female Iraqi prisoner Dr Rihab Taha - a key demand of the hostage-takers.

But Taha, a former germ warfare specialist for Saddam Hussein, is in US custody and American authorities in Iraq moved swiftly to say she would not be freed. Qassim Da'ud, an Iraqi minister of state, today confirmed prime minister Iyad Allawi would not be releasing her.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is to confirm the opinion of our government that there should be no negotiations at all with the terrorists. At the same time we hope and we wish the kidnappers have some sort of humanitarian feelings to free all the people they have under their control."

Paul Bigley told Today that Britain and the US should keep out of what should be an internal Iraqi affair. "Mr Blair can go fishing as far as I'm concerned. He hasn't got to call or do anything. All the powers have to do is allow the Iraqis to conduct their own internal affairs.

"They have been handed sovereignty to conduct their business on a day-to-day basis. A judge has made a legal decision to release three people, one female and two males. The minister of justice has endorsed this.

"Based on this, together with my personal lobbying in the background in the Middle East, we had a stay of execution and we have saved my brother's life for at least 24 hours. That was a shadow of light in a big, long, dark, damp, filthy, cold tunnel. Now this has been sabotaged."

He added: "Is this a puppet government or are the Americans moving the goalposts to suit their own aims again?"

After seeing the video of Ken Bigley pleading for his life, his son Craig, 33, begged his kidnappers: "Be merciful, as we know you can be. Release Ken back to his wife and family." The desperate family have seen no sign of mercy from the people holding Mr Bigley in Iraq - and no sign of the British Government being willing to negotiate with the kidnappers.

The two Americans captured with him have been beheaded, their murders videoed and posted on the internet. Eugene Armstrong was killed on Monday, and Jack Hensley's decapitated body was found in Baghdad yesterday.

The kidnap group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has threatened Mr Bigley with the same fate if women prisoners are not released from Iraqi jails.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said there was little hope of securing Mr Bigley's release, and that his family were "preparing for the worst". In a stark warning from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mr Straw said: "We continue to do everything we can... but it would be idle to pretend there's a great deal of hope."

Downing Street said the Foreign Office was looking into the video and keeping Mr Bigley's family fully informed. Tory

leader Michael Howard backed the Prime Minister's refusal to do deals with terrorists, and said he hoped the Bigley family would forgive him for his stance.

"We cannot give in to people that behave in this barbaric fashion," he said. "It would be a green light to them to take more hostages and kill more people. I feel desperately for Kenneth Bigley and his family. And I feel for Mr Blair, too, who is in the most unenviable predicament."

Taha, nicknamed Dr Germ, is one of two high-profile women prisoners in US custody. The other is Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs Anthrax, whom the American Embassy also insisted would not be released immediately.