Retrial for aid worker Margaret Hassan's murder delayed Skip to main content

Retrial for aid worker Margaret Hassan's murder delayed

Margaret Hassan
Margaret Hassan's body has never been found
The retrial of a man previously convicted of involvement in the kidnap and murder of UK aid worker Margaret Hassan has been postponed.
Ali Lutfi Jassar was jailed for life in 2009, but appealed the conviction and won the right to a retrial.
Mrs Hassan, 59, director of Care International in Iraq, was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2004.

Dublin-born Mrs Hassan - an Irish, UK and Iraqi citizen - was shot dead weeks later. Her body has never been found.
Ali Lutfi Jassar was arrested by Iraqi and US forces in 2008 after contacting the British embassy in Baghdad and attempting to extort money 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.
Sentence fears
Jassar, an English-speaking Sunni from Baghdad who called himself Abu Rasha, pleaded not guilty at the original trial.
He claims he was forced to sign statements confessing to the charges after being beaten and given electrical shocks during questioning.
His retrial was set to take place at the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad on Monday, but was adjourned until 18 April.
Mrs Hassan's family fear Jassar may have his sentence cut or be released, which could stop him telling the authorities where her body is.
Her sister, Deirdre Manchanda, said: "We want to find our sister's remains because we want to bring her home to be buried and we want justice for her.
"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."

BBC NEWS
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