AFP
Arafat intervenes on behalf of British hostage: brother
Date: Mon, Sep 27, 2004
LONDON (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) has intervened on behalf of Kenneth Bigley, the British engineer held hostage in Iraq (news - web sites) since September 16, his brother Paul Bigley said, describing the gesture as "fantastic news".
Questioned in the Netherlands where he resides, Paul Bigley told the 24-hour news channel ITV News that Arafat's intervention marked the biggest progress yet made in the campaign to secure the release of his brother.
Kenneth Bigley is being held by a radical group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who has already beheaded two American contractors who were seized with him.
Paul Bigley said he had been contacted by a Palestinian envoy to Ireland who had told him that Arafat had written to a Palestinian minister who lived for some years in Iraq to "do everything possible" to save Bigley.
Earlier Monday, Bigley called for the resignation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), saying that he had lost all credibility.
"Mr Blair is a gentleman, he's a statesman if you like, but I'm afraid to say, his sell-by date has really gone," Bigley said of Blair.
"He has not got the credibility to negotiate the purchase of a bicycle," he told BBC radio.
SOURCE
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