Turk lawyers reveal location of slain Briton body

ISTANBUL, Apr 22 (Reuters) The lawyers of a suspected al Qaeda militant now on trial in Turkey said today his client had disclosed the whereabouts of the body of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer beheaded in Iraq in 2004.

The militant, Syrian-born Louai al Sakka, claims to have taken part in the mock trial and sentencing of Bigley.

Lawyer Levent Dogus told Reuters Television the body was buried in a ditch near a small pond at the entrance into Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad, on the road from Nuaimiya.

He said the location was well-known to local people.

Dogus and Sakka's main lawyer, Osman Karahan, also said Bigley's kidnappers had sold his jeep for ,000 and distributed the money among the people of Falluja.

There was no way of verifying the lawyers' claims.

''After the growing demands of the British media and family, we decided to say where the body is located,'' Karahan said.

Karahan told Reuters Television in a first interview on Thursday that Sakka had been present during the mock trial and sentencing of Bigley, though he did not say whether his client attended the actual execution.

Karahan said Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had assigned Sakka to the Bigley case.

Bigley's family has appealed to his killers many times to return the body for a formal burial.

In London, the British Foreign Office said it was following up the claims made by Sakka's lawyers.

''Ever since the murder of Ken Bigley, we have continued to do all we can to establish the full circumstances of his death and to bring those responsible to justice,'' it said in a statement.

''We urge anyone who has any information about the murder of British nationals in Iraq to contact the appropriate authorities and to contact to us so we can keep family members informed.'' Sakka is on trial charged with masterminding and securing finance for bomb attacks on British and Jewish targets in Istanbul in 2003 which killed more than 60 people. He is believed to have escaped to Iraq after those bombings.

Security sources say Sakka, a bomb-making expert, was the top figure of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in Turkey He was caught in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir in August 2005 as he tried to board a plane for Istanbul under an assumed name. He had undergone plastic surgery.

REUTERS SRS BD1727