BAGHDAD (Kyodo) The Iraqi man who has confessed to executing a hostage Japanese backpacker in 2004 said Monday that Shosei Koda was not tortured during his captivity.

"We did not inflict any torture on him during his confinement," Hussein Fahmi Badr, 26, who is reportedly linked with al-Qaida, told Kyodo News at a Iraqi Interior Ministry facility in Baghdad.

"He pleaded for his release with tears in his eyes."

Badr, who faces multiple charges, including another murder, said five people were involved in the beheading of the 24-year-old Japanese man, whose body was found in the Iraqi capital on Oct. 30, 2004.

An Iraqi security force official said Badr is suspected of taking part in the killing of more than 900 Iraqi and foreign nationals.

An official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry said earlier that authorities did not know which group abducted Koda. It was earlier reported that his initial captors handed him over to Badr's group.

The leader of the group, named Sael (phonetic spelling), and Koda communicated in English, Badr said, adding that he had a hard time understanding what they talked about as he does not speak English.

The captive received food and water for the three days he was held in Baghdad, Badr said.

He said earlier the group executed Koda because Japan had refused its demand to pull out Ground Self-Defense Forces troops from the Arab country.

Iraqi television station al-Iraqiya also showed Badr saying he was paid 200,000 Iraqi dinars (16,000 yen) by the ringleader to do several things for the group, including killing Koda.

The alleged leader currently is being detained by the U.S. military, which has refused to hand him over to the Iraqi government, according to Iraqi officials.

Iraqi television reported Sunday night that the Interior Ministry's special forces arrested Badr over the killing of Koda.

The young Japanese traveler is believed to have been abducted by a group linked to al-Qaida shortly after he entered Iraq from Jordan in late October 2004.