BAGHDAD - A Sydney Muslim leader seeking the release of an Australian hostage in Iraq offered to take his place according to a statement in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.
"I announce my sincere readiness to hand myself over to the captors to be a hostage in exchange for the sick Australian citizen, till the conditions of the brotherly captors are met in the way they want," Sheikh Taj Eldin Al Hilali said in a statement issued through the Australian Embassy.
Earlier this month, Hilali spoke by phone to a man whose voice he was certain was that of the hostage, contractor Douglas Wood, aged 63, who was seized at the end of last month. His captors demanded that Australia pull its troops out of Iraq.
Australia, which has about 550 soldiers stationed in Iraq and another 350 soon to be deployed, rejected the demand that has now reportedly been dropped.
Hilali also asked Wood's captors to show proof their captive is still alive, by producing a videotape showing him.
05/25/2005 12:23 GMT