The twin sister of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll pleaded for her release on an Arabic satellite channel Wednesday, saying her sister is a "wonderful person" who is an "innocent woman."
Katie Carroll read a statement on Al Arabiya television, noting that there had been no word from her sister's captors in Iraq in almost two months.
"I've been living a nightmare, worrying if she is hurt or ill," Katie Carroll said, according to a transcript released by the Christian Science Monitor. "There is no one I hold closer to my heart than my sister, and I am deeply worried wondering how she is being treated."
Carroll, a freelance writer for the Boston-based Monitor, was kidnapped in Baghdad on Jan. 7 by gunman who killed her translator.
"No family should have to endure having their loved one taken away from them in this way," Katie Carroll said Wednesday.
The Monitor also published photographs of the Carroll sisters Wednesday, including one taken in July 1982 when the twins were 5 years old and wearing their jet-black hair in pigtails.
Carroll's captors were demanding the release of all women prisoners in Iraq and had set a deadline for Feb. 26. Nothing has been heard from her or her captors since that date passed.