I beg you for mercy, pleads wife

The wife of hostage Ken Bigley made an emotional appeal today for his captors to reunite her with her beloved "ordinary, hardworking, family man".

The wife of hostage Ken Bigley made an emotional appeal today for his captors to reunite her with her beloved "ordinary, hardworking, family man".

The 62-year-old engineer's Thai wife, Sombat, pleaded for his release just a day after a video was unveiled by his captors, showing her husband begging for help from Prime Minister Tony Blair.

She said she had seen the footage of her sobbing husband, and added: "We have been married for seven years and I love him very much ... I desperately want to be reunited with my husband.

"I plead for your mercy now, and beg that you release Ken so that I may be with him again."

He was seized by the militant Tawhid and Jihad group after being kidnapped with two colleagues at home in the wealthy al-Mansour district of Baghdad last Thursday.

The Americans who were also held alongside him - Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley - were apparently beheaded in grisly executions earlier this week.

"My husband Ken is an ordinary, hardworking, family man who wanted to help the people of Iraq amongst whom he has made many friends. As a loving wife, I beg you once more for mercy," she said.

The militant group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has said it kidnapped the three men, and has demanded the release of all Iraqi women prisoners held in the country.