Wood wants Iraqi captors hanged or jailed

CANBERRA - Freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood wants to see his Iraqi kidnappers hanged or locked in jail for life.

The 64-year-old engineer, who was freed by Iraqi and American forces two and a half weeks ago, also revealed he always held out hope the Australian government would pay a ransom in exchange for his freedom.

Mr Wood said he was a firm believer in the death penalty and wanted his captors brought to justice.

"I would like them to be arrested, tried and ... if hanging's the programme or if it's life imprisonment, I want the system to work," he told ABC radio's Sunday Profile programme.

"They deserve to be caught. Maybe they deserve to die, maybe they deserve life imprisonment, whatever the top penalty is."

Mr Wood's comments come after his fellow Swedish hostage in Iraq, Ulf Hjertstrom, said he would like to see the kidnappers hanged and revealed he had hired bounty hunters to track them down.

Mr Wood described how during his capture, his kidnappers told him how the Australian government had responded quickly to help him.

He said while he told the kidnappers Australia and the US would never meet their demand of pulling troops out of Iraq, he hoped that a ransom would be paid for his release.

"I assumed that in spite of official policy, maybe they were going to come up with a little bit of money that would spring me," he said.

Mr Wood, who was held captive for 47 days until he was freed on June 15, also denied being paid $400,000 by the Ten Network for an exclusive TV interview broadcast last Sunday.

He said he had lost work worth about $2 million as a result of having to leave Iraq and that the payment from Ten was much less than $400,000 and he was yet to receive a cent.

"If I can make a little money sharing some of my pain and agony, then why not?," Mr Wood said.

"Because I'm kind of the victim ... I don't feel I'm a gouger or a money grubber, I feel I'm a poor bugger who had a tough time and now is out of work."

But Mr Wood's wife Yvonne never approved of her husband's decision to work in Baghdad.

Mr Wood said while the couple had not seen each other for a year until they were reunited shortly after he was freed, being apart for so long did not have a major impact on their marriage.

"It doesn't have to, no," Mr Wood said, adding his wife would be happy to move from the US to Australia.

"Love's stronger than time."

- AAP