Taliban Puts Eight on Trial
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Four weeks after being arrested on charges of preaching Christianity, eight foreign aid workers - including two Americans - went on trial Tuesday, officials said.
The chief justice met for four hours Tuesday with 14 Islamic clerics at the start of the trial, which was closed despite earlier promises that proceedings would be open to journalists and relatives of the defendants. It was expected to last at least a few days.
The eight employees of Shelter Now International, a German-based Christian group, have been accused by Afghanistan's radical Taliban militia of trying to convert Muslims - a crime that carries the penalty of jail and expulsion for foreigners.
``It is a matter of concern for the whole Islamic world, not just the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,'' Chief Justice Noor Mohamed Saqib said.
The eight foreigners - the Americans, four Germans and two Australians - have denied the charges.
For Afghans, the penalty for proselytizing is death. Sixteen Afghan employees arrested with the foreigners will be tried separately. It was not known when their trial would begin.
The radical Taliban militia imposes a harsh brand of Islam in this impoverished South Asian nation.
For the parents of the two jailed Americans, Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, the wait has been fraught with uncertainty.
John Mercer of Vienna, Va., celebrated his birthday quietly while waiting at the U.N. guest house for news about his daughter's fate.
``The only present I want is to have my daughter home,'' he said Monday.
Curry's mother, Nancy Cassell, a teacher from Thompson's Station, Tenn., said she took comfort in the hope that the ordeal would soon be over.
Three Western diplomats, from Germany, Australia and the United States, have tried unsuccessfully to get information about the legal procedure under Taliban rule.
Saqib said Tuesday he was willing to explain the procedure if the diplomats came to court. He did not say when the eight would be called to court to speak in their own defense, but said they would be provided a lawyer upon request.
The only precedent of a foreigner being tried in Afghanistan under the Taliban occurred in March 1997 when two French employees of the Paris-based Action Contre la Faim were tried on charges of immoral conduct.
Their humanitarian aid group had hosted a lunch for Afghan women employees that Afghan men also attended - a crime under Taliban law, which imposes strict segregation of the sexes for Afghans.
At trial after 26 days in a Taliban jail, the two were sentenced to time served and ordered to leave the country immediately. Their trial lasted less than one hour.
Taliban law also requires women to wear the all-encompassing burqa, which hides them from head to toe. They are not allowed to work, cannot attend school after the age of 8 and are prohibited from traveling without a male relative.
Afghan men must wear a beard and cover their heads. Male government employees have to wear a turban.
The Taliban's strict enforcement of their laws among Afghans has left many international aid organizations fearful for their local employees.
A senior Taliban official has told The Associated Press that at least some of the 16 employees - probably the teachers - will be either sentenced to life in jail or death by hanging.
One of the books the Taliban say they have confiscated from Shelter Now International in Afghanistan was entitled ``Sharing your Christian faith with Muslims,'' which the ruling militia consider a book about proselytizing.
Known as a missionary organization among expatriate workers in Afghanistan, Shelter Now International was forced to close in neighboring Pakistan during the early 1990s after its employees were said to be proselytizing in Afghan refugee camps.
The other six foreign aid workers being held have been identified by the Taliban as Germans George Taubmann, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf, and Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas.
Originally published September 04, 2001.
