Coroner says hostages were shot dead
Updated on 30 June 2009
Two British hostages killed in Iraq died from gunshot wounds, a coroner has concluded.
The bodies of security guards Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell were flown back to the UK last week.
The Oxfordshire Coroner opened inquests into their deaths and is expected to release the men's bodies to their families so their funerals can be held.
A Foreign Office spokesman declined to comment on the inquests, saying: "This is an ongoing matter for the coroner."
Mr Creswell, originally from Glasgow, and Mr Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were among a group of five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.
A group of 40 armed men wearing police uniforms seized the hostages, including IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, and two guards identified only as Alan from Scotland and Alec from South Wales, at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in the capital.
In February last year, a video broadcast by Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya showed a bearded and tired-looking Mr Moore asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the British hostages.
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