Lawyer says Taliban fled with aid workers

The Taliban have fled Kabul, taking with them the eight aid workers on trial for promoting Christianity, following reports that the city has fallen to the opposition Northern Alliance, the lawyer for the aid workers told IRIN on Tuesday. "I have been receiving calls from Kabul with information that the aid workers have been taken, and we don't know where they are. We are worried about their safety," their lawyer, Atif Ali Khan, said. In response to a suggestion that the aid workers could be used as hostages, he said: "If they have taken the aid workers with them, then they are thinking of continuing the trial, maybe in Kandahar." The 26 year-old Pakistani lawyer said he had failed to make contact with any Taliban members since reports of major Afghan cities falling to the opposition began emerging had emerged. "I will not be travelling to Kabul yet, as we need to find out where they are first," he explained. Khan has been in Afghanistan three times to visit the eight, who, before their arrest, worked for the German-based Shelter Now International NGO. He submitted the case for the defendants on 13 October, and returned again shortly afterwards to answer any queries the Taliban had regarding the case. The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans were detained in early August together with 16 Afghan nationals for allegedly working to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity. Officials of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have 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, all of which were reportedly seized at the house where the aid workers were accused of promoting Christianity. The officials also claimed to have 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. Under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Shari'ah law, the charge of proselytising is punishable by death.