UK hostage 'in hands of new group'
LONDON, England -- The brother of British hostage Ken Bigley has said he believes the captive is now in the hands of a more moderate group in Iraq.
News reports in Kuwait have claimed the fundamentalist group that kidnapped Bigley in Baghdad last month was considering selling him to another militant group.
The new captors, reported to be the same group that released two Italian women last week, would then demand a large cash ransom, according to the reports.
Paul Bigley said Monday it was his "gut feeling" that his 62-year-old brother had already been transferred.
"I'm clinging on to the hope that Ken is no longer with the real baddy-baddies, just with the baddies. ... I'm cautiously optimistic at this moment in time," Bigley told CNN from his home in Amsterdam.
"It is my gut feeling, and the gut feeling of about 25 prominent people in Kuwait, that Ken is being held by a new group," Bigley said.
"The people telling me this are decent, honorable and high-level people, so I trust their instincts. Whether it will be confirmed remains to be seen," the UK's Press Association quoted Bigley as saying.
"If it has taken place, then it can only be a positive thing. I would much rather be dealing with people talking money than ones holding a government to ransom. Funds can always be found, somehow."
On Saturday, a newspaper in Kuwait reported that an Iraqi militant group was prepared to enter negotiations for Ken Bigley's release. The same newspaper accurately predicted the release of two Italian aid workers last week.
The British Embassy in Iraq said Monday it had no information about the reports that Bigley had been handed over to another group.
"We have no information that could confirm that Ken Bigley was handed over to another group in Iraq," The Associated Press quoted embassy spokeswoman Victoria Whitford as saying.
"We cannot confirm, we cannot corroborate. We want Ken Bigley to be released," she said.
Paul Bigley also said he had asked the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for help in winning his brother's release. He said the Gadhafi Foundation in Libya had told him it would do everything it could to help win the hostage's freedom.
Bigley said he recently called the Libyan leader's son, Saif Gadhafi, and "pleaded with him: 'Can you please pick up your phone and call your dad and ... help my brother to come home,' and he said he'd do all he could. Half an hour later, I got a call from ... the Gadhafi Foundation."
The Unification and Jihad group, led by al Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for kidnapping Bigley and two Americans on September 16. The Americans have been beheaded, and videos of the killings were posted on the Internet.
Al-Zarqawi's group have demanded the release of all female Iraqi prisoners. However, the International Committee of the Red Cross has insisted that Britain did not hold any women prisoners in Iraq.
Last week, an Arabic-language news channel broadcast video of Bigley caged behind bars. Bigley, originally from Liverpool, was working as a civil engineer in the Iraqi capital when he was kidnapped.
