|
Aid Workers Face Taliban Trial on Saturday
SYDNEY, Sept 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Eight Western aid workers held in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity will go on trial on Saturday, the Australian foreign ministry said Thursday, news agencies reported.
The trial began last month but was suspended following the terrorist attacks in the United States and U.S. demands to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers that they hand over Osama bin Laden.
The protocol chief at the Taliban Foreign Ministry in Kabul, Abdur Afghani, has told Australian diplomats in Islamabad the aid workers - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - are "fine", Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"They also advised that the trial would definitely proceed on September 29th," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
She said the aid workers' Pakistani lawyer had obtained a visa and was scheduled to travel in Kabul Friday.
But she added it was not known where the aid workers were being kept.
The detained workers are Germans George Taubmann, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf, Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, and Americans Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, AFP said.
The foreigners, plus 16 Afghan colleagues at German-based aid group Shelter Now International, have been in custody since their arrest in August.
Under Shari'a law (Islamic law) they could face the death penalty if convicted of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice Mawlawi Noor Mohammad Saqib, who is handling the case along with some 15 religious scholars, told the accused the trial would be just and merciful.
"The verdict will be very fair and just. Clemency has a special place in Islam and we will be as merciful as we can," Saqib said Saturday, adding that the court could not recommend any lawyers to defend them.
"I want to assure the accused that they should not fear that because they are non-Muslims we will punish them. The proceedings will be in accordance with Shari'a law which is full of mercy."
The aid workers were being held at a secret location in Kabul.
Taliban officials said they have written confessions from several of the accused and have displayed confiscated Afghan-language Bibles and thousands of computer disks containing Christian content.
Officials have said the eventual verdict will be presented to reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar for a final decision.
It is the first time foreigners have been charged with preaching Christianity in Afghanistan.
Sixteen Afghans, colleagues of the foreigners at German-based group Shelter Now, were also arrested and are expected to face separate legal proceedings.
|
