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Taliban Trial Clouded by Confusion in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept 5 (News Agencies) - Confusion reigned Wednesday as diplomats, aid workers and Afghans tried to fathom the secretive Taliban militia's judicial process during the trial of eight foreigners accused of preaching Christianity.
"It is a distinctly unique situation in comparison to legal and judicial systems existing in other countries," a foreign aid worker said.
He said most people knew only the decrees issued by Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and the punishments meted out to criminals, but trials were rarely discussed in the state-controlled media.
Diplomats representing the defendants - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - were stranded at the United Nations guesthouse having been denied permission to discuss the legal process with court officials.
"We are consular officers and we feel we have a right to know what the charges are and under what mechanism the trial will be conducted, and more importantly whether the detainees are in the picture or not," one of the diplomats said.
"We don't know what their legal system is, how it works. It is a learning experience for us."
Senior Taliban ministers had earlier said diplomats and journalists would be allowed to monitor the trial.
The eight aid workers were arrested in early August along with 16 of their Afghan colleagues. So far they have not received legal advice.
The maximum penalty for Afghans accused of apostasy is death but the Taliban have not explained the punishment for foreigners.
Afghan lawyers said they would not comment on the case as it was already before the court.
"We will not speak about it since it is a subjudice matter," lawyer Ghulam Rasool Daiqiq said.
Another Afghan lawyer, Mohammad Usman Zhobal, said Supreme Court trials were not supposed to last more than 20 days according to a decree from Omar.
"For a case to be tried in a primary court the deadline set is two months, in the secondary court it is one month, and it is only 20 days in the Supreme Court," said Zhobal, a former Supreme Court official.
But other lawyers, who said the trial could last for up to two months, contradicted his comments.
Zhobal said there were around 50 lawyers qualified in Islamic Shari'a laws who were allowed to appear before the courts.
For serious crimes, defense lawyers charge around 300,000 to 500,000 Afghanis (about seven dollars).
"The courts are bound to abide by the laws of Shariat. There are other books also, but the judgment has to be based strictly in accordance with the Shariat laws," he said.
He said the Taliban had reviewed all laws introduced under previous Afghan regimes and struck down articles which were not in line with their vision of a pure Islamic state.
Zhobal said trials were generally open, but it was not compulsory for the accused to have lawyers, who were provided only if the accused were unable to defend themselves.
Ordinary Afghans were less concerned about the trial than about how they were going to survive amid grinding poverty, civil war and relentless drought.
"If these foreigners have violated the law they should be punished, but I am more concerned how to get two meals a day for myself and my family," a young man said.
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