Posted on 9/5/2001, 6:40:38 AM by HAL9000
ISLAMABAD, Sept 5 (AFP) -Eight foreign aid workers on trial in Afghanistan for allegedly preaching Christianity could be hanged if found guilty, Taliban chief justice Mawlawi Noor Mohammad Saqib said Wednesday.
He told the Afghan Islamic Press the punishment would fit the alleged crime and the death penalty was an option if the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans were found guilty.
Don't hold your breath waiting to hear from them, because they DON'T EXIST.
Chief Justice refuses to meet diplomats seeking information about trial of nationals
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press WriterSeptember 5, 2001
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Three Western diplomats, frustrated by a lack of information about the trial of eight foreign aid workers charged with propagating Christianity, were refused a meeting Wednesday with the Taliban's chief justice.
In refusing to do so, Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib said the court would contact the diplomats if there was any need to meet with them.
The trial of the two Americans, four Germans and two Australians began in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The preceding is closed to the public, and no one has said how long it could last.
For 30 minutes Wednesday, the diplomats waited outside the Supreme Court building in the heart of Kabul, surrounded by armed Taliban soldiers and journalists. Inside the building, the Chief Justice met with his fellow judges and decided now wasn't he time to meet the diplomats.
He didn't give any explanation. Frustrated, the diplomats departed.
"Please pass on the message to the chief justice that we need to know the procedure, so we can pass it on or have it passed on to the detainees," said Alastar Adams, first secretary at Australia's Embassy in Pakistan, before leaving the Supreme Court building.
"We are not here to interfere with the legal process," he said, but rather to understand the procedure. The Western diplomats said part of their job is to advise their nationals on the legalities of their trials.
But for much of the past week the diplomats have been unable to meet any Taliban official.
The parents of the two American women, Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, visited their children last weekend, and Adams saw his two imprisoned nationals last week.
But the diplomats said the Taliban foreign ministry has been virtually silent.
"After six days of not getting access to the competent authorities in Afghanistan" to set up a meeting with someone in the know about the legal procedures, the diplomats decided to take the initiative and approach the chief justice on their own, said Helmut Landes, consular officer of the German Embassy in neighboring Pakistan.
Landes and his colleagues from Australia and the United States turned up at the Supreme Court building shortly after 9 a.m. (0400 GMT) to seek a meeting with Saqib.
"We have come to get an explanation of the judicial process," said Adams. He and Landes were accompanied by David Donahue, consul-general at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.
The eight foreign aid workers of Shelter Now International, a Christian German-based organization, were arrested more than four weeks ago, along with 16 Afghan employees of the same organization. Under Taliban laws, the punishment for a foreigner caught proselytizing is jail and expulsion. For an Afghan, the penalty is death.
The only other trial of a foreigner under Taliban rule occurred in March 1997, when two French nationals of Action Against Hunger, the Paris-based aid organization, were tried on a charge of immoral conduct. The two men waited 26 days for their trial to begin. It lasted barely one hour, the judge sentenced them to time served, and ordered them expelled immediately.
But analysts say since then the Taliban have developed a structure and an organization, they are anxious to show the world that it is in place.
On Tuesday, Saqib said the court was independent, it would review the evidence and hear the accused, who would be entitled to a defense if they wanted one. The verdict would then be decided.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Wednesday, September 5 3:22 PM SGT
Taliban judge warns foreigners could be hanged in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept 5 (AFP) -
The Taliban Islamic militia's chief justice Wednesday warned that eight foreigners on trial for preaching Christianity in Afghanistan could be hanged if found guilty.
Chief Justice Mawlawi Noor Mohammad Saqib gave the clearest indication so far that execution is an option under the Taliban's radical brand of Islamic law as the trial of the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans entered its second day.
"We will give them punishment according to Islamic law, whether imprisonment or hanging," he was quoted as saying by Pakistan-based private news agency Afghan Islamic Press.
"We will punish them according to the laws they have broken. If they have broken the law and should be hanged then we will punish them like that."
The aid workers were arrested along with 16 Afghans more than four weeks ago but the charges and likely punishment have not been fully explained. The Afghans are likely to face a separate legal process.
The Taliban Supreme Court began the trial of the foreigners, without the defendants and behind closed doors, on Tuesday despite promises that diplomats and journalists would be allowed to observe the proceedings.
Officials said Saqib and senior Islamic scholars were meeting again Wednesday as the trial entered its second day.
The chief justice reiterated the defendants would receive a fair hearing and would be allowed to hire Afghan or foreign lawyers even though it is not common practice in Afghan courts.
"We have no objection if they hire their own lawyers, whether Muslim or foreign," he said.
Saqib, who is understood to have learnt Islamic law at a Pakistani madrassa, or seminary, said the court still had not decided whether to allow independent monitoring of the trial.
"If they want to defend themselves they can, but it is not necessary that others are present in the court. If the judges allow us then we will give them (the diplomats) permission," he said.
"We are reviewing (the prisoners') files and we are checking the Islamic codes against these violations. Whenever we feel it is necessary we will ask them to appear in court."
Once the verdict is reached, it will be handed to Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar for final approval.
The defendants are being kept at an undisclosed place of detention. They have had rare meetings with Red Cross workers, relatives and diplomats, and are said to be in good health.
American, Australian and German diplomats, who arrived in Kabul last week hoping to organise a legal defence and monitor the trial, demanded to meet Saqib Wednesday and clarify the legal process, but they were turned away.
They were barred from entering the Surpreme Court building and were told their presence would be requested when it was deemed necessary.
A visibly shaken Australian consul, Alastar Adams, said the envoys were being "kept in the dark" and demanded to know how the Taliban planned to proceed with the trial.
"We want to know what's going on," he told AFP outside the court.
"It's too bad that we have been kept completely in the dark about the trial, which we understand has started.
"We have been waiting patiently for more than a week now and none of the Taliban officials have responded to our pleas."
The accused are Americans Heather Mercer and Dana Curry, Australians Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch and Germans George Taubmann, Silke Duerrkopf, Margrit Stebner and Kati Jelinek.
It is the first time foreigners have been charged with preaching Christianity in Afghanistan.
Fighting Continues In Afghanistan's Kapisa Province
By Mohammad Omar Sharifi
Afghanistan This WeekSept 04 -- Intense fighting erupted between Taliban and the United Islamic Front of Afghanistan in the north-eastern Kapisa province, on Tuesday.
Radio Pakistan quoted Afghan Islamic Press as reporting that Taliban captured two important areas, Khanqa and Sang-e-Boreeda but later on in interview with Radio Mashhad ( IRAN ), Mohammad Younas Qanooni said that Taliban made a powerful strike from three sides on our position but all were defended, except one in which Taliban managed to gain some area, but in an counter attack we retake all the lost area.
He said that after intense fighting of two days Taliban gain only few post in Khanqa, but Sang-e-Boreeda is still under our full control.
Qanooni accused Pakistan of continuing fighting in Afghanistan. He said that Taliban will try to continue attacks but our forces are ready to defend.
Taliban Capture Bagram Air Base
By Mohammad Omar Sharifi
Afghanistan This Week3 Sep 2001 -- A source close to the rulling Taliban authorities told Afghanistan This Week that the ruling Taliban have captured the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul.
The source told that the attack started in the morning and continued till after noon, in which Taliban's forces managed to capture Bagram air base and some high grounds around it.
When a United Front source was contacted he told that in the beginning Taliban managed to gain some ground in the so called NEW ROAD between Bagram and Kabul, but soon their attack was repulsed and they lost all the areas. This source added that in this fighting a number of Taliban's soldiers were killed and some other injured.
The UF spokesman said that fighting is still continuing in the area.
First off, the way I see it is that if they are let off, it would make the Taliban look more 'moderate', i.e. they are merciful etc. (especially if the Western press get really hysterical over the reporting). As for not meeting foreign diplomats means that no 'threat' can be delivered in person or in full public view, which also means that such a threat would either have to be sent directly via the Media or discreetly. As for the hanging, that is in itself a warning that any 'considered' anti-Taliban action/threat could well be used to condemn these people to death. This forces the Western politicians to tread softly, after all, the Taliban has all the cards in its hand...
VRN
If these people wanted to die for there religion the Taliban are just the sort of people who would be happy to help them, and Afghanistan the right country to pick to make martyrdom certain.
This is a country with one of the most repressive religious regimes going. That was always a harsh unforgiving sort of place, brutalised even more during the Soviet Occupation, and is still in the process of fighting a very brutal civil war with atrocities committed on an almost daily basis by both sides.
Tony
Some people would do anything for 15 minutes of fame!
VRN
I don’t think they had it in mind I think it was pure stupidity or not understanding the circumstances or the nature of Afghanistan, if that is the case part of the blame belongs to the organisation which sent them out there.
I would like to know what training and briefings they were given.
Tony
Maybe they would too. I'd love to put it down to stupidity but none of these organizations are 'newbies'. We have seen from Bosnia that the quality of NGOs vary quite drastically in 'quality', ranging from well intentioned people without a clue and arms smugglers, to the kosher orgs such as the ICRC.
VRN
P.S. 'If', is my favorite two letter word.
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