An Iraqi lawyer defending senior members of former Iraqi regime has been asked to mediate the release of a kidnapped French journalist in Iraq, the lawyer told Xinhua on Monday.
Badie Arief Izzat, designated to defend former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and "Mrs. Anthrax" Huda Salih Amash, appealed for an immediate release of the hostage.
"I call on the kidnappers of the French journalist to release her immediately for humanitarian purpose, because France did not take part in the war against Iraq," he said.
Izzat said he made the appeal of his own will after he held a meeting with a French diplomatic mission, which asked him to play the role of a mediator.
He accepted the request but conceded he had no idea of the kidnappers, and he could only concentrate his efforts on making pleas in media.
Florence Aubenas, 43, who works for the French daily Liberation, disappeared with her Iraqi translator Hussein Hanoon, on Jan. 5.
Last Thursday, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar said during a visit to France that the journalist missing in Iraq had been kidnapped, but he did not elaborate.
Two other French journalists, kidnapped by the Islamic Army in Iraq, were released last month after being taken hostage for four months.
The militant group responsible for a number of kidnappings and killings said in a statement that the two were freed, because they had been "proven not working as spies for American forces."
France is opposed to the US-led war on Iraq in 2003.