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Oct. 1, 2004 — LONDON (Reuters) - The brother of a British hostage in Iraq said Saturday intelligence officers had raided his Dutch home, copied data from his computer and forced him to make a five-page statement about his activities.
Paul Bigley, brother of hostage Kenneth Bigley, said the raid happened two days ago but a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said neither British nor Dutch officials had carried out such a raid.
"There was no raid," she said. "No British officials of any kind have raided Paul Bigley's home."
Bigley said the raid had made him feel like a criminal and had wasted time in the race to save his brother's life.
"I've lost 48 hours of my quest to get Ken free because of all this nonsense," Paul Bigley told Sky Television News by telephone from the Netherlands. "It was incredible."
"I understand that people have to check things out ... but there are ways of doing these things."
Bigley said Dutch and British officers raided his home in the Netherlands, where he runs his own business.
"(They copied) my whole computer, which of course they are welcome to copy," he said, adding that there was nothing suspicious on it.
Asked about a newspaper report which said the officers forced him to make a five-page statement detailing his recent activities, he said: "That's true."
"It's a very poor show ... I felt diabolical," he said.
Bigley denied having any direct contact with his brother's kidnappers, from the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a key ally of al Qaeda.
He said his only contacts with the group were through Arabic television channel Al Jazeera.
Kenneth Bigley was seized 16 days ago with two Americans, both of whom have since been beheaded by their captors.
The 62-year-old engineer has made two videotaped appeals, both broadcast on Al Jazeera, in which he begged Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet his kidnappers demands and work to free him.
Paul Bigley has been a vocal critic of British government efforts to secure his brother's release and has accused Blair of lying over the Iraq war.
Wow. Strange, alright.Bigley said Dutch and British officers raided his home in the Netherlands, where he runs his own business.
Accusing Prime Minister Blair of lying about the Iraqi war is not a good thing to do if you want him to put up the funds!