A library photo for Chesnot (L) and Malbrunot (AFP)

BAGHDAD, September 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The release of two French journalists and a British engineer kidnapped in Iraq reportedly just a matter of time.

A French mediator in Iraq said Wednesday, September 29, he is just waiting for a US authorization to extract French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot by air.

“I have met the two hostages... Their release is a done deal, without any ambiguity. There have been no negotiations, and no compensation,” Philippe Brett, who is in Iraq, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone.

Brett is not an official French government envoy but an assistant to French MP Didier Julia, who has for years been involved in Middle East affairs and sits on a parliamentary commission studying Iraqi issues.

“We have asked President Jacques Chirac to contact the Americans and obtain clearance for an air corridor. If we get a green light, the release will be immediate,” he said.

“If we don't get the authorization, we have other options which will take more time and could lead to a release in three, four or five days,” Brett said. “It's just a security issue now. We will take no risk whatsoever with the security of the hostages.”

Brett refused to disclose the date or place of his meeting with the hostages, who were kidnapped on August 20.

The French foreign ministry has so far denied any knowledge of an agreement to free the pair.

The abductors had asked the French government to rescind a ban on hijab in state schools.

Chairman of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM) Dalil Boubakeur, however, said the estimated five million Muslims reject the “odious blackmail” of the captors. 

High Hopes

“Tony Blair is a liar. He doesn't care about me. I'm just one person,” said Bigley

Meanwhile, the British government said Wednesday it was trying to make contact with Iraqi militants holding Briton Ken Bigley hostage and to authenticate Internet messages announcing his imminent release.

Bigley's younger brother Paul said he had received a written translation of a message from the kidnappers suggesting they would spare the 62-year-old engineer's life and free him, reported AFP.

“I believe it is true and we are hoping and waiting to see what happens now," the younger Bigley said on ITV television from his home in the Netherlands.

The Foreign Office said it was checking various claims of Bigley's imminent release posted on Internet sites but were taking them seriously.

“It is difficult to establish the veracity of the claims because you can never know if these are the work of someone making fun of the situation in an Internet cafe or if they are genuine,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Plea to Blair

Bigley appeared in a video Wednesday on Al-Jazeera Channel, pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save his life by meeting his captors' demands to release Iraqi women from jail.

A chained and distraught Bigley was squatting in a cage and dressed in an orange jumpsuit of the kind associated with Muslims held by US troops at Guantanamo Bay, Reuters reported.

“Tony Blair is a liar. He doesn't care about me. I'm just one person,” said Bigley.

“My captors don't want to kill me,” he added.

Bigley was seized September 16 from his Baghdad home, along with two Americans, who were beheaded allegedly by a group linked to Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

A British Muslim delegation said after a 48-hour mission to Baghdad that they had received “very encouraging advice and promises that we hope, inshallah (God willing), will lead to the release” of Bigley.

Hopes for the release of the three hostages were revived by the release of two Italian women taken hostage earlier in the month.