Trial of aid workers set to resume amidst cautious hope

Court proceedings against the eight foreign aid workers accused of preaching Christianity in early August are set to resume in the Afghan capital, Kabul, after their lawyer reaches the highly troubled country from neighbouring Pakistan on Friday. While diplomats and family members remain less than optimistic about the fate of the four Germans, two Australians and two Americans currently being detained at an undisclosed location, the lawyer, who will be meeting his clients for the first time on Saturday, remained positive. "I'm hopeful and I think we have a very good case," Atif Ali Khan, counsel for the eight, told IRIN on Thursday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The 26-year-old Pakistani national will travel by road to the beleaguered nation because Taliban authorities closed Afghan air space in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September. Commenting on the case, he said: "I can't say when the actual trial will resume, but I'm prepared to stay on if necessary." He confirmed that this would be his first meeting with his new clients, and that it was difficult to gauge how things would proceed. "Only after I meet court officials and the detainees will I be able to take stock of the situation," he said. Khan said he was unsure if the case against them was still being investigated, but confirmed that the aid workers had yet to be formally charged. On the help he was getting from the Taliban authorities, he maintained they had been forthcoming and cooperative so far, and was confident that cooperation would continue. "There is a lot of compassion in this great religion of Islam, and we are going to use that," he said. He added that he would ask for mercy if the court was not persuaded by his arguments to forgive his clients. Nancy Cassell, mother of Dayna Curry, one of the two American women being held, however, was more cautious. "I want this case to move forward, and we are hoping for a positive conclusion that will result in their release," she said. Cassell, who has been in Pakistan since 20 August and traveled to Kabul seeking her daughter's release, added: "We are hoping Mullah Omar will demonstrate his Islamic compassion and release all of them." Meanwhile, diplomats of the foreign nationals were concerned over the lack of information available. This despite an AFP report on Tuesday quoting a German foreign ministry spokesman as saying the detainees were in good health. "We are hoping there will be an expeditious continuation of the trial, but there is no fresh information at the moment," Helmut Landes, a German diplomat in Islamabad, told IRIN. Howard Brown, the Australian High Commissioner in Islamabad, told IRIN they were not even sure where the detainees were being held, only that the Taliban foreign ministry had moved them to what they had described as "a safer location". "We are maintaining daily contact with the Taliban authorities in an effort to ascertain the welfare of the detainees and secure their release." Brown added that he hoped Saturday would mark the beginning of the end to this case. The detainees made their first court appearance on 8 September, when they were told by the Taliban chief justice that the investigation into their activities was still proceeding and had yet to be concluded. The eight aid workers of the German-based relief agency Shelter Now International, along with 16 Afghan nationals, were arrested between 3 and 5 August on charges of proselytising, a charge punishable by death under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Shari'ah law.