UK aid worker's killer 'could walk free after retrial'

The family of murdered aid worker Margaret Hassan have voiced fears that the only person jailed for her killing could walk free after a retrial today.

Mrs Hassan, 59, the director of humanitarian group Care International in Iraq, was taken hostage on her way to work in Baghdad in October 2004 and shot dead just under a month later.

Iraqi architect Ali Lutfi Jassar was jailed for life at Baghdad's Central Criminal Court in June last year for his part in her abduction and murder and for attempting to blackmail her relatives.

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But in November he was granted the right to a retrial, and Mrs Hassan's family fear he could now have his sentence cut or even be released.

This could dash their hopes of finding her body so they can bring her back to Britain for burial.

The aid worker's sister, Deirdre Manchanda, said: "We want Ali Lutfi Jassar to stay in prison because we are convinced he was definitely part of the kidnap gang because he knew too much to have got it from the internet or any other source.

"The other reason we want him to stay in prison is he's claimed many, many times in these transcripts to know where Margaret's remains are.

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"It's not just justice for Margaret. It's justice for everybody. It's justice for the people of Iraq and it's justice for the British people because she was British.

"Apart from anything else, a terrorist murderer should not be on the streets of Baghdad."

Jassar was arrested by Iraqi and US forces in 2008 after contacting the British embassy in Baghdad and attempting to extort $1m 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.

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Jassar, an English-speaking Sunni from Baghdad who called himself Abu Rasha, pleaded not guilty to the charges. He claimed in court last June that he had been forced to sign statements confessing to the charges after being beaten and given electrical shocks during questioning.

"I have nothing to do with Hassan's abduction and I did not see or talk to her," he said.

His retrial is set to take place at the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad today.

Mrs Manchanda met Prime Minister Gordon Brown last month. He pledged to do what he could to help her family and wrote to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about Mrs Hassan's case in early March, she said.

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"Since I met Gordon Brown, lots of things have moved. This retrial has been taken far more seriously than the first trial was," she said.

"There seems to be far more backing from the Government and the British embassy in Baghdad."

DOZENS DIE AS SUICIDE BOMBINGS SHATTER CALM IN BAGHDAD

Three suicide car bombings shook central Baghdad in quick succession yesterday, killing at least 31 people and breaking a period of relative calm in the Iraqi capital after elections last month.

One of the blasts struck near the Iranian Embassy, said Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the city's operations command centre. The other two were in western Baghdad.

At least 185 people were injured in the explosions.

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Many victims of the blast outside the embassy were employees at a nearby state-run bank.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said it was unclear whether the blast was targeting the embassy itself.

"The explosion happened at the embassy gate, targeting visitors and Iraqi police," he said. "There was some damage to the embassy building but no employees were harmed inside."

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