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Wife of British hostage Alan Henning makes video appeal for his release Wife of British hostage Alan Henning makes video appeal for his release
(about 2 hours later)
The wife of the Manchester taxi driver held hostage by Islamic State militants has begged the group to spare his life and allow him to return to his family.The wife of the Manchester taxi driver held hostage by Islamic State militants has begged the group to spare his life and allow him to return to his family.
In an emotional televised appeal, Barbara Henning, whose husband Alan has been held in Syria for nine months, said she could not understand why the group could not acknowledge the truth about his reasons for travelling to the country. The emotional televised appeal by Barbara Henning was arranged by the Foreign Office on Tuesday, shortly before the Ministry of Defence announced that RAF aircraft had bombed Isis targets for the first time.
“We are at a loss why those leading Islamic State cannot open their hearts and minds to the truth about Alan’s humanitarian motives for going to Syria and why they continue to ignore the verdict of their own justice system. Henning, whose husband, Alan, has been held in Syria for nine months, said she could not understand why Isis was unable to acknowledge the truth about his reasons for travelling to the country.
“Surely those who wish to be seen as a state will act in a statesman-like way by showing mercy and providing clemency. I ask again, supported by the voices across the world, for Islamic State to spare Alan’s life. I ask Islamic State please release him, we need him back home.” “We are at a loss why those leading Islamic State cannot open their hearts and minds to the truth about Alan’s humanitarian motives for going to Syria and why they continue to ignore the verdict of their own justice system,” she said. “Surely those who wish to be seen as a state will act in a statesmanlike way by showing mercy and providing clemency.”
She added that after receiving an audio file of her husband, begging for his life, contact with the group had been broken. She added that she wanted both her husband and Islamic State to know that he had not been abandoned by his family: “Alan, we miss you, and we’re dreadfully concerned for your safety.” Last week Henning revealed she had received an audio message from her husband pleading for his life, and had been told that a sharia court had found him innocent of being a spy.
Henning, 47, a father of two teenage children from Eccles, Greater Manchester, was kidnapped last Boxing Day, on a return aid trip to Syria, with a group of his Muslim friends. They were taking ambulances and medical equipment to refugees in the country. “I have a further message for Islamic State,” she said on Tuesday. “We’ve not abandoned Alan and we continue in our attempts to communicate with you. We have had no contact from Islamic State holding him other than an audio file of him pleading for his life.
His plight went unreported at the request of the UK Foreign Office, until he appeared in a video made by the group, which also depicted the murder of Scottish aid worker David Haines. “Muslims across the globe continue to question Islamic State over Alan’s fate. Their position regarding his statement is unequivocal. He is innocent. We ask Islamic State: please release him. We want him back home.”
Speaking about the circumstances in which her husband was abducted, Henning said: “Some say wrong time, wrong place.” But this was not correct, she said. In a direct message to her husband, Henning added: “Alan, we miss you and we’re dreadfully concerned for your safety. But we are given so much hope by the outcry across the world as to your imprisonment.”
“Alan was volunteering with his Muslim friend to help the people of Syria. He was in the right place doing the right thing.” Speaking about the circumstances in which her husband was abducted, Henning said: “Some say wrong time, wrong place.” But this was not correct, she said. “Alan was volunteering with his Muslim friend to help the people of Syria. He was in the right place during the right time.”
Meanwhile, a former Islamic State hostage has said he believes that the direct pleas being made by Henning’s family are a good policy. Her 47-year-old husband, a father of two teenage children, from Eccles, Greater Manchester, was kidnapped last Boxing Day. He had joined a group of his Muslim friends who were taking ambulances and medical equipment to refugees in Syria. It was at least his second trip to the country.
Bunyamin Aygun, 43, an award-winning Turkish photographer, said he had been threatened with execution, regularly moved between squalid cells, and was repeatedly questioned over whether he was a spy. Other volunteers have since described how he was separated from the rest of the group after armed men surrounded a warehouse, just a few minutes’ drive from the Turkish border, where they were delivering aid material.
He also said that one of his captors may have been British. “A guy of about 20 years old was speaking English; not Arabic or Turkish,” he said in a television interview. “He wasn’t wearing a mask. His English was like British English. And he was white.” His plight went unreported at the request of the UK Foreign Office, until he appeared in a video made by the group that also depicted the murder of the Scottish aid worker David Haines.
Two previous videos posted on the internet and promoted through the use of social media depicted the murders of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Three subsequent videos have featured a British photographer, John Cantlie, delivering propaganda messages on behalf of Isis. In the first, he made clear that he was acting under duress.
A former Islamic State hostage said he believed that the direct pleas being made by Henning’s family were a good policy.
Bunyamin Aygun, 43, an award-winning Turkish photographer, said he had been threatened with execution, regularly moved between squalid cells and repeatedly questioned over whether he was a spy.
He said one of his captors may have been British. “A guy of about 20 years old was speaking English, not Arabic or Turkish,” he said in a television interview. “He wasn’t wearing a mask. His English was like British English. And he was white.”