Scots hostage ‘brutally murdered’ by captors in Iraq

A British hostage was “brutally murdered” by his captors in Iraq, an inquest concluded. Security guard Alan McMenemy was snatched in Baghdad by gunmen along with three other guards and an IT expert they were protecting in 2007.

• Glasgow man Alan McMenemy was taken hostage in Iraq by militants posing as police officers at the finance ministry in May 2007

• Mr McMenemy, who was 34 at the time he was captured, was killed along with three others

• William Hague called on the Iraqi government to continue its investigations into the ‘horrific crimes’

Foreign Secretary William Hague told MPs an inquest into his death found he had been unlawfully killed.

The body of Mr McMenemy, who was from Glasgow, was returned to the UK in January this year.

The only one of the men to be released alive was the subject of the bodyguards’ protection, Peter Moore, who was freed in December 30 2009, 946 days after he was kidnapped.

The bodies of the three other guards were passed to British authorities in Iraq that same year.

Alec MacLachlan, 30, from Llanelli, south Wales, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, 39, originally from Glasgow, were abducted with 36-year-old computer expert Mr Moore and Mr McMenemy, who was 34 at the time of the kidnap.

They were snatched by militants posing as police at the Iraqi finance ministry in May 2007.

Inquests into the deaths of the other three guards last year concluded they were unlawfully killed.

Mr Hague said Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner David Ridley had recorded the same verdict on Mr McMenemy at an inquest on Monday.

“The coroner concluded that Mr McMenemy had been brutally murdered by his captors,” Mr Hague said in a written Commons statement.

“I am sure that the House joins me in extending our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Alan McMenemy.

“They had to suffer uncertainty and pain after Alan was taken hostage and grief on news of his death.”

Mr Hague called on the Iraqi government to continue its investigations into the “horrific crimes” and to bring those responsible to justice.