Posted on 09/12/2001 8:31:49 PM PDT by HAL9000
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Western diplomats assisting eight foreign aid workers detained for preaching Christianity will leave Afghanistan on Thursday after appointing an Islamic scholar as defence counsel, the Australian foreign ministry said.The Afghan Supreme Court had indicated that the counsel should be allowed "regular access" to the detainees, the ministry said.
Afghanistan-based Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden is a key suspect in Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington and the prospect of U.S. retaliation has raised tensions in Kabul.
Washington denied involvement when Kabul's airport was rocked by blasts on Tuesday. An Afghan opposition group said it was responsible.
The hardline Islamic Taliban detained 24 workers of the Christian relief agency Shelter Now -- four Germans, two Americans, two Australians and 16 Afghanis -- five weeks ago, accusing them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman said the diplomats from Australia, the United States and Germany, who had been in Kabul to help the detained foreigners, would evacuate to Pakistan in a United Nations aircraft.
"We hope the consuls will be able to return to Afghanistan," the spokeswoman told Reuters, but added no date was set.
She said the Pakistan-based diplomats last visited the detained workers on September 11.
The trial of the eight foreign aid workers will be held before a council of qualified Islamic scholars. The Afghanis will be tried separately.
The foreign detainees, who at a court appearance appeared healthy, have been identified as Germans Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf, Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, and Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer.
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