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Detained Foreign Aid Workers to be Expelled from Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Eight foreign aid workers detained in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan for preaching Christianity to Afghan Muslims have escaped the death penalty and will be expelled, the Islamic militia's newspaper said Sunday.
The Taliban's Daily Shariat paper said the foreigners - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - would be punished under Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's decree 14, which allows a few days in prison and expulsion within 48 hours of release, the French news agency AFP reported.
But, the paper said Shari'a, or Islamic law, would apply to the 16 Afghan aid workers arrested with the foreigners last week, meaning they could still face the death penalty.
The first foreigners were arrested August 3rd, so they could be released from detention as early as Monday and expelled soon after. Others were arrested August 5th.
Deputy Justice Minister Mullah Jalaluddin Shinwari was quoted as telling visiting United Nations special representative Francesc Vendrell that the foreigners would not be executed.
"Regarding foreign nationals, the policy of the Afghan Emirate is based on [Omar's] decree number 14," the daily quoted Shinwari as telling the U.N. envoy on Saturday.
"Regarding Afghan nationals the Shari'a law will be implemented. The implementation of Shari'a law is essential. There can be no compromise on this."
The aid workers, staff of the German-based non-governmental group Shelter Now, have been charged with attempting to convert Muslim Afghans to Christianity.
Police caught two of the foreign women, an American and an Australian, showing a Christian film on a computer to an Afghan Muslim family in a bid to convert them, AFP reported.
Subsequent searches of Shelter Now offices turned up thousands of Christian computer disks and Bibles translated into the main Dari language of Afghanistan, police said. The aid group claims the religious material was for mere personal use.
The group's offices in Kabul and the provinces were consequently closed.
Decree 14, announced in early June, contains a code of conduct for foreigners prohibiting, among other things, "illicit relations with women", public obscenity, public drinking, loud music, proselytizing, public consumption of pork, "walking naked" and the distribution of anti-Taliban material.
An earlier decree from Mullah Omar in January said anyone found trying to convert Afghans from Islam could be executed, but it was not clear if this also applied to foreigners.
Afghanistan's Taliban regime Sunday warned foreign nationals not to indulge in preaching any other religion in Islamic Afghanistan, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.
"We cannot tolerate any anti-Islamic activity in Afghanistan," Taliban minister for religious police Mulla Wali Mohammad was quoted as telling the Pakistan-based news service.
"We were receiving information that some non-governmental organizations [NGOs] were involved in anti-Islam propaganda and spreading Christianity. Our ministry, in a serious and wise move, arrested Shelter Now workers with proof," he said.
Meanwhile, diplomats in Pakistan expressed relief Sunday at the Taliban Daily Shariat report about the release of the eight foreign aid workers.
"We have to check what has happened, but that would be a good development," an Australian embassy spokesman said, quoted by AFP.
A U.S. embassy spokesman said he had heard of the Shariat Daily report, but was reluctant to comment until it was officially confirmed.
"I have no independent way to confirm the report. If it is true it is a welcome development," he said.
A German embassy spokesman said: "We have just heard of the report and we have to verify it. Anyway that is good news. I hope they will be released at the earliest."
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