THE family of Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker kidnapped and murdered in Iraq, said yesterday that the Government was to blame 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 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.

He pleaded repeatedly with the British team leading efforts to secure her release to open a dialogue with the caller, but was rebuffed by officials who argued that they did not negotiate with hostage takers.

Mr Hassan said that the first call from the kidnappers came soon after his wife was ambushed while driving to work in October 2004. The Times has learnt that her husband wrote down the caller’s instructions and passed the telephone number to the British Embassy, repeating the kidnapper’s warning to “get in touch quickly” if they wished to see Mrs Hassan freed unharmed.

Mr Hassan says that British officials refused to make the call and instead told him to demand proof that the caller was part of the group holding the 59-year-old aid worker with Care International, and evidence that she was still alive.

Her husband implored the embassy to send an expert in hostage negotiations to his home in the Iraqi capital, but diplomats thought that it was too dangerous.

The embassy would not respond to three similar calls despite Mr Hassan warning officials that the kidnappers were losing patience with their refusal to speak to them.

Mrs Hassan, who had lived in Baghdad for 30 years, was killed a month after her abduction, reportedly by being shot in the back of the head. Her body has still not been found. Mrs Hassan’s family also criticised British diplomats yesterday for allegedly failing to help them discover where Mrs Hassan’s remains are.

Her sisters say that they are desperate to find the remains as her husband is refusing to leave Iraq until her body is found. The family told The Times: “We are very concerned for Tahssen. He will not leave until this is resolved and he is in an increasing perilous and lonely state”. The family met Jack Straw, while he was Foreign Secretary, to plead with him to persuade the Iraqi authorities to permit British investigators to question three men arrested in May 2005 after Mrs Hassan’s clothes and other personal belongings were discovered at their farm.

The family made the same request of Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, saying that Royal Military Police and Scotland Yard detectives based in Baghdad might have been able to discover what really happened to Mrs Hassan and where she is buried. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office refused, saying that it was a matter for the Iraqi police.

In their statement, the family say: “They have refused this request even though this is the only way that Margaret’s remains will be found and we can bring her home to be buried with the dignity she deserves.”

They add: “We believe the time has now come for the British and Irish people to know the truth of what happened to our sister Margaret, a British subject.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed last night that Mr Hassan was called from Mrs Hassan’s phone by someone purporting to be holding her, but said that they had been unable to confirm the claims. Officials said that they were keen to distance Mrs Hassan, who had joint Irish citizenship, from the British Government and emphasise her charity work in Iraq.

“Our strategy was one of ‘personalisation and localisation’, minimising the links between Mrs Hassan and the UK,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “We understand her family having criticisms of the government approach and we remain in regular contact with them.”

The Government was also criticised by the Irish Government for not telling them that the three Iraqis, arrested by US troops last May, are due to go on trial later today over Mrs Hassan’s kidnap and murder.

Dermot Ahern, the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister, has had to appoint a lawyer in Baghdad to represent the Dublin Government at the trial, his spokesman said.

Investigators in Iraq believe that the group that snatched Mrs Hassan was also responsible for the kidnap of other westerners, including Kenneth Bigley and the peace activist Norman Kember.

DESPERATE DAYS

October 19, 2004 Margaret Hassan kidnapped; video released by captors

October 20 Care International ceases operations in Iraq; husband makes televised appeal to kidnappers

October 22 Kidnappers release second video

October 23 Husband makes second plea

October 27 Third video broadcast by al-Jazeera shows Mrs Hassan calling for withdrawal of troops and release of women prisoners

November 2 al-Jazeera refuses to broadcast full footage of fourth video on humanitarian grounds. Video promises to hand over Mrs Hassan to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militant group

November 6 Call for Mrs Hassan’s release published on Islamic website under al-Zarqawi’s name

November 16 Mrs Hassan’s husband reports his wife’s death

January 31, 2006 Mrs Hassan’s kidnappers demanded a ransom of $10 million to spare her life, according to a leaked Italian police report

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