In a quiet office in central Baghdad, IT expert Peter Moore stood in front of a group of attentive students, passing on his knowledge.

The date was Tuesday, May 29, 2007, one that should have been just another day for the Leicester-born man working in the Iraqi capital.

But, as Peter delivered his lecture, he was unaware that 40 gunmen had stormed the walled compound that surrounds the Iraqi finance ministry where he was based.

He also had no idea that two of the four British men charged with his protection had been overpowered and taken hostage.

Moments later, the armed men burst into his room, disarming and capturing two more security guards before seizing Peter.

Outside, the group was bundled into some of the 19 vehicles waiting in Palestine Street and driven off in the direction of the densely populated Shia district of Sadr City.

That was the last time any of the five were seen in person, and the last time Peter's exact whereabouts were known.

It was almost two years ago.

Peter moved to Baghdad from America, where he had been working for management consultancy BearingPoint.

He was, according to his father, Graham Moore, who works as a delivery driver for a chemist in Leicester, only supposed to be there for six weeks.

The programme he was involved in – teaching IT to Iraqi civil servants – was reportedly well paid, and Peter hoped to pay off his student loan.

He was nearly two weeks away from finishing his post when the militants struck.

At the time of the kidnapping, Iraqi officials blamed the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

It was thought to be a retaliatory attack for the killing by British forces of the militia's commander in Basra a week earlier.

Until the release of the latest video, nine days ago, the only time Peter had been seen alive was in footage released in February 2008 by his kidnappers, the Shi'ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

In it, he appeared physically and mentally tired and said: "My name is Peter Moore, I have been held here for nearly eight months now.

"All I want is to leave this place. I tell Gordon Brown the matter is simple – release their prisoners so we can go.

"It's as simple as that. It's a simple exchange of people. That is all they want – their people, and we can go home."

In a previous video, broadcast by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television in December 2007, the kidnappers threatened to kill their hostages unless British troops were pulled out of Iraq within 10 days. It has been reported that the release of the video to the British Embassy in Baghdad could be a sign that ongoing negotiations are moving in the right direction.

For Graham Moore, from Wigston, it says his son is alive after almost two years in captivity.