THE family of Margaret Hassan, the aid worker kidnapped and murdered in Baghdad, angrily criticised an Iraqi court and the British Government yesterday after a man was jailed for life for aiding and abetting her kidnappers.

Mustapha Salman, 32, who was found in possession of Mrs Hassan’s personal belongings, should have been convicted of murder, the family said.

Mrs Hassan who had lived in Iraq for 30 years was married to an Iraqi and held British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship.

The 59-year-old aid worker for Care International was shot dead within a month of her kidnapping in October 2004, after appearing in a series of harrowing videos in which she pleaded for her life. Her body has never been found.

The case before Baghdad’s central criminal court is thought to be the first brought over the abduction of a foreigner. After the sentence was announced, Mrs Hassan’s family said in a statement: “We are devastated and appalled with the decision of the Iraqi court which they reached after a two-hour hearing.

“This man was found with Margaret’s belongings. He had used her mobile telephone up until the eve of her death, to make demands of her husband, Tahseen. He admitted to the Iraqi police that he had interrogated Margaret. Why was he not found guilty of murder? He is now entitled to appeal and may be free within months.”

The family also expressed outrage that two other defendants had been found innocent and accused them of belonging to the group that “had kidnapped Margaret, tortured and murdered her. They showed neither pity nor humanity to Margaret; justice has not been done.”

The family criticised the British Government for not interviewing the defendants in the hopes of locating Mrs Hassan’s body. “The British Government’s handling of Margaret’s kidnapping was inept. We feel that Margaret has been betrayed and that truth and justice have been denied,” the statement read.

Salman and his co-defendants Qassem Mohamed, 39, and Mohsen Ahmed, 33, were arrested during a joint US-Iraqi security force operation in Albu Aissa, southeast of Baghdad in May 2005. The other two were freed.

Mrs Hassan championed Iraq through her work with Care and was a harsh critic of the effects of the 1990s UN trade sanctions on Iraq and of the 2003 invasion.

In statements read to the court, Salman insisted that he was innocent. He said that he had been given Mrs Hassan’s belongings by a friend. When he opened the bag two months later he found Mrs Hassan’s purse and documents inside.

Salman, dressed in a grey shirt and pajama bottoms, spoke to the court’s three-judge panel in a low voice. The other two defendants insisted they were innocent. In an earlier statement, Mrs Hassan’s brother, Michael Fitzsimons, and sisters, Deirdre, Geraldine and Kathryn, revealed that the kidnappers contacted her husband four times using Mrs Hassan’s mobile telephone, demanding to talk to a member of the British Embassy.

Mr Hassan pleaded with the British team to open a dialogue with the caller but was rebuffed by officials who said that they did not negotiate with hostage takers. 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”.

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