Al-Jazeera will air mother's plea for hostage

The Arabic television network al-Jazeera will broadcast the video of Harmeet Singh Sooden's mother pleading for her Auckland-based son to be freed.

TV3 last night passed the footage directly to al-Jazeera in a satellite feed via London after concerns that the station had failed to broadcast it.

Iraqi militants have threatened to kill Mr Sooden and three other hostages by tomorrow unless all prisoners in Iraqi and United States detention centres are freed.

On Sunday, the video was sent to the Associated Press Television News agency, to which both al-Jazeera and TV3 subscribe.

But when TV3 contacted al-Jazeera, the station could not say whether it had picked up the video feed.

APTN's director of news, Sandy MacIntyre, told the Herald from London that Manjeet Kaur Sooden's plea had been broadcast five times on its syndicated networks on Sunday morning, local time.

"Clearly those bulletins are seen by 500 broadcasters around the world, many of whom are in the Arab world.

"APTN doesn't broadcast straight to the public ... [but] there is a good chance the stations would choose to take the material and then broadcast it themselves."

But when TV3 contacted al-Jazeera, it could not confirm the footage had been broadcast.

"TV3 sent the material to APTN and, following up an apparent non-receipt by al-Jazeera, used all endeavours to get the material to al-Jazeera," said TV3's Auckland bureau chief, Keith Slater.

Last night TV3 technical experts confirmed that al-Jazeera had received a live video feed via London, he said.

Al-Jazeera assured the Herald this week that it would broadcast the footage when it received it. The station has already broadcast a video from the wife of one of Mr Sooden's fellow captives, British professor Norman Kember.

Mrs Sooden says in the tape that her son, a 32-year-old Auckland University student, is a peace-making man who went to Iraq to do good.

Mr Sooden, a Canadian citizen, is being held by the Brigade of the Swords of Righteousness after being abducted with three other humanitarian volunteers at the end of last month.

Auckland University Students for Justice in Palestine are organising a candlelit picnic of solidarity for Mr Sooden and his colleagues tonight.

The picnic, from 7.30, will be at the Tahake Reserve off Mt Eden Rd, at the base of Mt Eden.