UK hostage Peter Moore released alive in Iraq
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
From BBC News
Mr Miliband said the Moore family felt deep relief after two-and-a-half years of "misery, fear and uncertainty".
Three bodyguards seized at the same time were later shot dead and a fifth man was also taken hostage.
The Foreign Secretary said he believed Alan McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, had also been killed and called for the release of his body.
Mr Miliband said Mr Moore, who had been released on Wednesday morning, was in the British Embassy in Baghdad and would be reunited with his family as soon as possible.
The Foreign Secretary said he had a "very moving" conversation with Mr Moore, who was "to put it mildly absolutely delighted" and now undergoing medical checks.
Mr Miliband said: "The joy and relief that will be felt by Peter's family will be mirrored by the continuing anguish of the family of Alan McMenemy, the last of the five men taken hostage.
"We have believed for some time that he has been killed and his family have been told our view of his likely fate."
Mr Moore had been working for US management consultancy Bearingpoint in Iraq. The other men were security contractors employed to guard him.
British hostage released in Iraq
The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, of Glasgow, were returned to the UK in June 2009, followed by that of Alec MacLachlan, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, in September.
The group was captured at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance by about 40 men disguised as Iraqi policemen.
They were understood to belong to an obscure militia known as Islamic Shia Resistance, which demanded the release of up to nine of their associates held in US military custody since early 2007.'I'm breaking down'
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I am hugely relieved by the wonderful news that Peter has been freed.
"At this moment of celebration, we also remember the families of British hostages who have been killed in Iraq and elsewhere.
"And we pledge to continue to do everything we can to bring British hostages back to their loved ones, including the remaining hostage of the group in Iraq, Alan McMenemy. I demand that the hostage takers return him to us."
Mr Moore's father Graeme, 60, from Wigston, Leicestershire, said he was "over the moon" at the news.
He said: "We are so relieved and we just want to get him home, back now to his family and friends.
"I'm breaking down, I'm just so overjoyed for the lad. It's been such a long haul. I know that there have been one or two people working in the background to get Peter released.
"Peter is a very resilient lad and he always has been because of his background."
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