Muslim Cleric Flies to Iraq in Bid for Hostage

Australia’s most prominent Muslim cleric has flown to Baghdad to help negotiate the release of an Australian engineer held hostage, a day after he made a plea on Arabic television for the kidnappers to spare the man’s life.

Sheik Taj El Din Hilaly’s appeal came on behalf of 63-year-old Douglas Wood. In the taped plea, Hilaly is seen with Woods’ brothers, Malcolm and Vernon, seated beside him at a mosque in Sydney.

“I regard him as our brother, a fellow Australian, an innocent man,” Hilaly said in the tape. “He should not suffer because of politics whether they be right or wrong.”