THE family and friends of Norman Kember, the 74-year-old British pacifist held hostage in Iraq, fear time is running out for his safe return after an American kidnapped with him was found tortured and murdered.

They believe Kember’s British passport could mark him down as the next to die if the previously unknown terrorist group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigades, carries out its threat and kills another hostage.

It wants all Iraqi detainees to be released in return for the release of Kember and two Canadian captives.

The three and Tom Fox, a 54-year-old American, were in Baghdad as a team from Christian Peacemakers, a Canadian charity, when they were seized in November.

Sources in Baghdad close to those trying to negotiate their release claimed yesterday that an Iraqi hostage negotiator was killed by the kidnap gang in December but the murder had not been made public. The Foreign Office in London declined to comment on the claim.

Fox’s body was founded wrapped in a blanket and dumped close to a main road and railway station in western Baghdad on Thursday evening. He was wearing grey trousers and a grey shirt.

Iraqi police revealed that he had died from bullets to the head and chest. One officer said he appeared to have been beaten by electric cables.

There had been concerns for his wellbeing when he did not appear in a silent, 25-second video broadcast of the other three hostages screened last week.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said that he was “deeply saddened” by Fox’s murder. “This clearly raises the anxiety about the other hostages,” he added.

There was no word on the whereabouts of Kember, from Pinner, northwest London, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.

Yesterday Kember’s wife Pat, 72, was being comforted by friends and family. Bruce Kent, the peace campaigner and friend of Kember, said: “It is agony. Mrs Kember must really be in torture.”

Chris Cole, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, of which Kember is a trustee, said: “We are very fearful for Norman because Britain joined the US in this invasion of Iraq.”

Phiroza Gan, chairwoman of the Harrow Interfaith Council, of which Kember was a founder member, said: “We miss Norman dreadfully. I have a feeling that the Muslims will injure themselves by killing people like him.”

Canon Andrew White, the priest in charge of St George’s church, Baghdad, where 800 Iraqi Christians worship, said: “We have worked on over 90 hostage victims but only 27 have actually been released.”

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