 Ken Bigley wanted to help ordinary Iraqis, his brother says |
The UK government has not negotiated an Iraqi prisoner's release in order to secure hostage Kenneth Bigley's freedom, Downing Street has insisted. Statements on Islamist websites had said Mr Bigley, from Liverpool, would die if women prisoners were not freed.
Iraqi officials then said one woman, a senior member of Saddam Hussein's regime, will be released on Thursday.
Downing Street expressed surprise at the move saying it is "an extraordinary and complicated coincidence".
A spokesman told the BBC there was no request by anyone at any level of the government for female prisoners to be released.
"That would be tantamount to dealing with terrorists," the spokesman said.
 |  All I could say was, 'keep hope alive'  |
The government "knew nothing" about the proposed release of Rihab Rashid Taha, a biological weapons scientist nicknamed Dr Germ during Saddam Hussein's rule, he said.
He added: "The decision by the Iraqi justice minister to say what he said was a complete surprise both to the Americans and to us.
"We knew about the process of [detention] review but this is, in the end, an extraordinary and complicated coincidence."
Ms Taha is one of two women prisoners held by the US-backed authorities in Iraq, according to the US military.
'Cautiously optimistic'
Mr Bigley's brother, Paul, described the woman's release as "a light in a very dark tunnel".
"I am, together with the family, cautiously optimistic. It is definitely a better position than we were in yesterday," he told BBC Radio 5.
He said he had sent a message on Arabic television pleading for mercy and assuring the kidnappers he was working for the release of women prisoners.
But Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy warned against negotiating with terrorists.
The Iraqi authorities would have to think very carefully before giving encouragement to other vigilantes wanting to make a "grotesquely misguided point on the international stage", he said.
Mr Bigley, 62, was abducted along with Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong in Baghdad last week.
Mr Armstrong was beheaded on Monday by a group believed to be led by al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Reports on Tuesday say the kidnappers, claiming to be from the Tawhid and Jihad group, have also beheaded Mr Hensley.
'Burden'
Former hostage Terry Waite has offered his support to Mr Bigley's family.
Mr Waite, who spent almost five years as a hostage of Islamic radicals in the Lebanon, spoke to Mr Bigley's family at their home in Liverpool.
"I sometimes feel in situations like this the worst burden is, in fact, carried by the family," he said.
"The problem for families is that they just do not know what is going on, but I have to say that they are amazingly resilient and all I could say was, 'keep hope alive'."
A candlelit vigil for Mr Bigley was held on Tuesday night at St Mary's Parish Church in Walton, Liverpool.
Video footage
A website thought to be linked to the group behind the kidnappings showed video footage of Mr Armstrong being beheaded on Monday.
On Tuesday night the website said a film of the second hostage's killing would be provided.
The renewed threat to Mr Bigley's life was made later on Tuesday on another website, which has been linked to Mr Zarqawi's group in the past.
The three hostages were kidnapped from the garden of their home in the Mansour district of Baghdad last Thursday.
They had been working for Middle East-based general services and construction contractor Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services.
More than 100 foreigners have been abducted by insurgents in Iraq over the past 17 months.
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