Judges of the Bucharest Appeals Court tried on Thursday to use a video conference to hear a man sentenced to death in Iraq over his role in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists last year. Still, the full procedure was postponed for December 14 as the questions sent from Romania reached convict Mohammad Munaf too late and he did not have enough time to prepare his answers.

In images broadcast by Romanian public television TVR today, it was not clear if the people undergoing the hearing was Munaf himself. He was accompanied by two persons, one of which claiming to be his lawyer.

One of the journalists kidnapped last year, Ovidiu Ohanesian, said the man was Munaf as he recongnized his attitude and gestures.

An Iraqi court sentenced Munaf - currently held at a US base in Baghdad - to death last month over his role in the kidnapping Ohanesian and two other Romanian journalists in spring 2005.

Munaf served as a guide for the journalists at the time. The kidnapping was allegedly set up by a Romanian businessman of Arab descent, Omar Hayssam, who faces terrorism charges in Romania over the case. Hayssam managed to flee Romania earlier this year.