The Irish government issued a passport to Iraq hostage Ken Bigley in the hope that the country's long history of conflict with Britain might sway those holding him.
The government planned to scan a copy of the passport for screening on the Arab television network al-Jazeera yesterday.
Bigley went to Iraq on a British passport but is entitled to Irish citizenship because his mother, Elizabeth, was born in Ireland.
The Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, said: "Kenneth Bigley's family has asked for an Irish passport to be issued in order to help convince his kidnappers of his Irish citizenship.
"I am happy to agree to this request and I, the Taoiseach, and the government as a whole very much hope that it will contribute to the efforts to secure his release."
The Irish passport is aimed at testing the theory that the group that kidnapped him, led by Abu Musad al-Zarqawi, might be swayed by Ireland's repeated rebellions against British rule.
The move came as Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the 32-year-old son of the Libyan leader, said he was using contacts in Iraq in an effort to free Bigley.
"We have good contacts in Iraq. We have friends in hospitals ... tribal leaders and we are talking to them," Qaddafi told journalists at the opening of a Libyan art exhibition in Vienna yesterday.
The possibility of using Irish citizenship was first raised by Bigley's brother, Paul, in a radio interview in Ireland almost a fortnight ago. The Irish foreign minister, Brian Cowen, almost immediately raised it with the UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, at a private meeting at the UN.
Paul Bigley, who has mounted a vociferous campaign from his home in Amsterdam, said last night that he was "ecstatic" over the Irish passport.
"This probably means the freedom of Ken," he said. "The Arab world has great respect for the Irish and the Irish government and respect for the plight they have been going through for centuries. The fact that Ken is Irish and the fact that we have now proven that he is Irish ... I do not think there is any way that even the baddest of people would harm an Irish person."
Bigley refused to speculate on whether his brother receiving an Irish passport increased the likelihood of a ransom being paid to secure his release. "I don't know. If a ransom is made it has to be met. Where the pennies are going to come from, Lord only knows," he said.
His optimism was not matched by the Irish and British governments who see the passport move as part of their duty to pursue all options other than making concessions to the hostage-takers.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS