CAIRO, Al-Qaida in North Africa said Sunday it would kill a British hostage if London does not release an imprisoned radical preacher .
The group said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site that it will execute a British tourist held by the group since late January if the extremist Muslim preacher Abu Qatada is not freed in 20 days.
Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian, was jailed in Britain in 2002 for links with militant groups but was released in 2005. He was re-arrested and is pending deportation to Jordan where he was sentenced to life in prison in absentia.
Britain's lower courts said he couldn't be deported because of his fears he would likely be tortured but the Law Lords ruled there was no proof of a real risk to him.
Four tourists, including two Swiss, a German woman and a British man, were kidnapped by gunmen Jan. 22 in Niger, their tour operator said.
Two of the tourists, a Swiss and German woman, were subsequently released on Wednesday along with a kidnapped Canadian diplomat and his assistant. The kidnappers said they were exchanged for four of their imprisoned fighters.
In addition to the British man, another Swiss tourist remains with the kidnappers.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, known by the French language acronym AQMI, is an Algeria-based group that joined Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in 2006 and conducts dozens of bombings or ambushes each month. It operates mainly in Algeria but is suspected of crossing the country's porous desert borders to spread violence in the rest of northwestern Africa.
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