FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg revealed how he wanted to help secure the release of British hostage Alan Henning but the government rejected his offer.
Begg said he thought he knew who had been holding the aid worker.
The 46-year-old recently had terror charges against him arising from his time in Syria which included charitable and investigative work, dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to lack of evidence.
Begg who said Henning's killing was "despicable", Henning's friends had sought his help and he had told the government he was going to intervene regardless.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said how on previous visits to Syria he had been successful in helping to secure the release of hostages held by groups other than Islamic State (IS).
"I intervened by getting some other groups who could pressurise them to release those individuals and I got them released," he said.
"The problem is that the government in its attempts to demonise and criminalise me simply refused to look at anything to do with what I was about."
