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British Journalist Held in Afghanistan Appeals for Release
By Aamir Latif
JALALABAD, Oct 4 (IslamOnline) - A female British journalist, arrested by the Taliban for entering Afghanistan illegally, has appealed to Supreme Leader Mullah Omar to "forgive her mistake" as investigations continued for the second day on Thursday in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, an official spokesman of Taliban government told IslamOnline.
An investigative team, comprised of Taliban intelligence officials who reached Jalalabad from Kabul on Wednesday, is trying to determine whether the
Sunday Express reporter, Yvonne Ridley, is a spy.
Ridley made her appeal on Wednesday to the Taliban's Supreme Leader in a written statement terming her entrance to Afghanistan as a "sheer mistake" and assuring "I will never go for this sort of adventure," the Taliban official quoted her as saying.
He said the British journalist had contended in her statement before the investigative team that she entered Afghanistan to "acquaint" herself with the "deteriorating" conditions of the Afghan people for which she offers a "tender apology".
The Taliban official said the detained journalist was in good health and had been provided with all facilities.
He said Ridley had not merely violated Afghan law by entering the country illegally, but also took "wrong advantage" of the dress of Afghan women. This, he said, was tantamount to "humiliating" the Afghan women's manner of dress.
So far, the Afghan official said, she had not been found to be an American spy, however, "we still are doubtful about that."
Ridley was arrested along with two Afghans inside Afghanistan near Pakistan's Thorkhum border a few days ago.
On Monday, Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel said that Ridley was married to an Israeli and "could be" working for British intelligence.
Al-Jazeera said it had obtained information suggesting Ridley "could be a spy working for Britain's MI6," reported Agence France- Presse (AFP).
Ridley, a journalist with London's Sunday Express, was, until 1999, married to Ilan Roni Harmush, who might also be working for Israeli intelligence, the channel said.
Al-Jazeera showed what it said was a photocopy of Harmush's Israeli passport, as well as the couple's divorce papers and a photograph of Harmush, Ridley and her seven-year-old daughter Daisy, born of a previous marriage.
The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat identified Daisy's father as Daud Zaarur (alias Abul Hakam), a former military commander of the Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon.
The newspaper said Ridley met Zaarur in Lebanon in the late 1980s and they married in London, but the couple separated five years ago.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted a Taliban official Sunday as saying the militia had sent a special investigation team from Kabul to Jalalabad to question Ridley, who was arrested for allegedly entering Afghanistan illegally from Pakistan.
"We want to ascertain whether the woman is a journalist or whether she was working for some spy agency," the official said.
A Taliban diplomatic source in Peshawar, Pakistan, earlier told AFP that Ridley had disguised herself underneath a
burqa - a traditional all-covering garment - to enter the country and could have been spying.
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