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Campaigners have defied an official news blackout in a bid to free a Briton held in Iraq. Friends of Peter Moore, a computer consultant who was kidnapped along with his bodyguards over 18 months ago, are launching a campaign to increase pressure for their release.
They say Moore is strong-willed and will not be defeated by his ordeal. However, they fear he and the other hostages have been forgotten because of a virtual news blackout sanctioned by the British government. The full names of Moore's bodyguards have not been released at the request of the Foreign Office's advice to the families.
Moore's friends have set up a website - www.4pete.org - which explains the reasons for defying the official line that publicity could jeopardise efforts to win the hostages' release. "It is to be hoped that if more can be known about Pete and the ideals he represented, then pressure can be brought to bear upon those in a position to negotiate for his and his fellow captives' release," the site says.
Moore was kidnapped with his guards on May 29, 2006, when around 40 armed men stormed the finance ministry in Baghdad. Nothing was heard of Moore for nine months, until he appeared in a video in February 2007 appealing to Gordon Brown to free Iraqi prisoners.
In July of this year the kidnappers claimed that one of the bodyguards, named only as Jason, had committed suicide. This has not been officially confirmed.
In a statement the Foreign Office said: "We remain deeply concerned about the five hostages. We and their families have called for their unconditional humanitarian release. We are working closely with the Iraq government and US authorities and remain willing to work with any others who can help."
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