Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Gang member jailed over murder of Margaret Hassan in Iraq

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Margaret Hassan: Mrs Hassan was one of the highest-profile figures to fall victim to the wave of kidnappings which swept Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.
A member of the gang that kidnapped and murdered Margaret Hassan, the aid worker, in Iraq has been jailed for life.
Mrs Hassan, 59, the director of aid agency Care International in Iraq, was kidnapped on her way to work in Baghdad in October 2004 and shot dead just under a month later.
Ali Lutfi Jassar pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and murder but was given a life sentence at Baghdad's Central Criminal Court.
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Mrs Hassan was one of the highest-profile figures to fall victim to the wave of kidnappings which swept Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Dublin-born Roman Catholic, who had joint British, Iraqi and Irish nationality, was married to an Iraqi and had lived in Iraq for 30 years.
Her family has spent the past four-and-a-half years trying to discover where her remains are so she can be brought back to Britain and given a proper burial.
Jassar was arrested by Iraqi and US forces in August last year after contacting the British Embassy in Baghdad and attempting to extort money in return for leading them to Mrs Hassan's body.
In his communications with Embassy officials, he mentioned an intimate detail about the aid worker that only her closest relatives and friends knew.
Mrs Hassan's family hope that Jassar will now reveal where to find her remains.
Her sister, Deirdre Fitzsimons, said: "We want to ensure she gets buried with the respect she deserves because she has not been treated with respect.
"My sister was a Catholic and it would be her wish to have a proper Christian burial.
"However much she loved Iraq, she always wanted to be buried in this country. That is what we want to do for her."
Jassar is the second person to be brought to justice over Mrs Hassan's abduction and murder.
Mustafa Mohammed Salman al-Jabouri was given a life sentence by a Baghdad court in June 2006 after being convicted of aiding and abetting the kidnappers. His sentence was later reduced on appeal.

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