Hassan family blames Blair as abduction trial begins in Iraq

Daniel McGrory

THE family of Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker kidnapped and murdered in Iraq, yesterday blamed the Government for her death by refusing to speak directly to her Iraqi kidnappers. "We believe that the refusal by the British Government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers cost our sister her life," her brother, Michael Fitzsimons, and three sisters, Deidre, Geraldine and Kathryn, said in a statement issued on the eve of the opening of her alleged abductors’ trial in Baghdad. "Margaret, who was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq, was sacrificed for the political ends of Tony Blair and George Bush." The family revealed that the kidnappers contacted Mrs Hassan’s Iraqi husband, Tahssen, four times using Mrs Hassan’s mobile telephone, demanding to talk to a member of the British Embassy...

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