Aid workers await their fate

The eight aid workers on trial in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on charges of preaching Christianity, a crime punishable by death under the strict Islamic Taliban rule, are still awaiting their fate. "I was hoping for a judgment from the Supreme Court last week, but we just don't know how long it will take now," a lawyer for the aid workers, Atif Ali Khan, told IRIN on Tuesday. He had returned from a third visit to Afghanistan last week, after submitting the case for the defendants on 13 October. "I went back to answer any questions the Taliban had about the case, but they did not have any," he said. Khan added that he had been told the chief justice, who was overseeing the case, was "busy with other business", and that that was the reason for the delay. Khan said, however, that the judiciary had clarified that the case had not been affected by the current state of politics in the country. Main cities in Afghanistan have been under heavy attack from US-led forces for more than three weeks. Although targeting Taliban assets and terrorist training camps in response to the 11 September attacks in the US, the attacks are reported to have also led to civilian casualties and displacements. Khan said the aid workers were living in fear of the bombings. "Its really bad for them. They hear huge blasts while sitting in their cell, and the building they are in shakes. But the bombing doesn't seem to be inside the city," he added. Khan noted that many local people were very angry due to what he described as "many civilian casualties", and that the Taliban was moving the aid workers to a different location at night for their own safety. "They are staying in a far less comfortable bunker-type place," he said. The 26 year-old lawyer, who is based in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said he was hopeful there would be a decision on the case in the next week or so. The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans, who worked for the German-based Shelter Now International relief agency, were detained in early August together with 16 Afghan nationals for allegedly working to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity. The Taliban's Deputy Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Salim Haqqani, has shown reporters computer disks containing the story of the life of Christ in the local Dari language, a copy of the Bible in English and Dari, a book on Christianity, and the written confession of one of the accused, according to newspaper reports. Diplomats were able to meet the aid workers, but were forced to leave Afghanistan when the international aid community there withdrew following the 11 September attacks. Meanwhile, the Taliban is reported to have said that its investigation into the case of Michel Peyrard, the French journalist arrested on suspicion of spying, is nearing a conclusion, according to AFP. He was arrested near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad after being caught in disguise wearing a burka (traditional cloak for Muslim women covering the whole body) soon after the start of the US-led bombings. A Japanese journalist was also being held for illegally entering the country, the report said.