By John Springer
Court TV

The trial of eight humanitarian workers arrested for allegedly preaching Christianity in Afghanistan is scheduled to resume Saturday, but the lawyer for two Americans held says he needs more time to prepare.

The Pakistani lawyer hired by the parents of Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry told U.S. diplomats in Islamabad that he plans to travel to meet with court officials in the Afghan capital of Kabul Saturday.

Asi Ali, 26, who also met with parents of both women, will carry a care package with him and a request that the trial be delayed briefly to give him time to review the case and learn more about the justice system in a country where law and religion are tightly interwoven.

Material confiscated by Taliban authorities from the office of Shelter Now International (AP)

"State Department officials haven't had meetings with the Taliban for any reason other than to discuss the status of our detainees, who are still in Kabul," spokesperson Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington Wednesday.

Another spokesperson, Joann Prokopowicz, told Court TV that very little is known about the way justice is dispensed in Afghanistan, where a third of the adult population can neither read nor write.

"It's really hard to find anything written" about how trials are conducted in Afghanistan, Prokopowicz said.

Curry, 29, and Mercer, 24, were arrested August 3 and accused of preaching Christianity as a sideline to their jobs helping poor Afghanis find food and shelter. Their trial began last month but was suspended after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. They, and six other foreign nationals who worked for the German aide group Shelter Now International, face penalties ranging from expulsion to death if convicted.

Curry's parents, James Cassell and Nancy Cassell, who live in Thompson's Station, Tenn., told reporters based in Islamabad that their daughter looked fine and was relatively upbeat during a brief visit just before the terrorist attacks. Mercer's parents, John Mercer of Vienna, Va., Deborah Oddy of Lewiston, N.Y., are also in Islamabad awaiting news out of Afghanistan.

"No word. We're watching the wires just like you," Mark Wentworth, the U.S. Embassy press attache in Islamabad, told Court TV by phone earlier this week.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is considering whether to take a "peace delegation" from Afghanistan to Pakistan, the only country that still has diplomatic ties — albeit strained — with the Taliban. The White House urged Jackson not to go and Secretary of State Colin Powell told Jackson that if he went, he would not be representing the U.S. government.

"There is nothing to be gained by holding them as trophies of this war," Jackson said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show."

Curry and Mercer became friends while attending Baylor University in Texas. Both worshipped at Antioch Community Church in Waco.

The church's pastor, Jimmy Siebert, urged Americans in a prepared statement to pray for the detainees.

"What we are specifically asking is that Americans everywhere bring Dayna and Heather's names before God daily, asking for the prison doors to open and for us to be able to see them face to face in America again," Siebert said. "We are also asking for Americans to continue to pray for the four Germans, two Australians and their Afghan friends."

Afghan Law

Since the Taliban seized power in 1996, the law in Afghanistan has been dictated by the ruling council of clerics and local leaders acting under its authority. According to the State Department and human rights groups, trials are often brief affairs that end in summary judgment on behalf of the government. In cases involving murder and rape, convicted prisoners generally are ordered executed. There are no appeals.

Because of ongoing internal struggle for control, including major clashes between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, Afghans have no freedom of speech, press, assembly or association. There is no constitution, although leaders promised to enact one after seizing power.

Despite the lack of freedoms and due process in Afghanistan, Nancy Cassell told reporters last week that she remains hopeful that the amount of publicity generated about her daughter's plight by the U.S. standoff with the Taliban could keep Curry safe. Cassell also said she was not concerned about the U.S. dropping bombs indiscriminately on Kabul, where the detainees are jailed.

Ala'i agreed that the Taliban may feel international pressure to go easy on the detainees because the case is under the world spotlight.

"The feeling now, for what I am hearing, is that they are just going to have this summary trial and deport them," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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