FAZ.NET (Germany)

Nov. 3, 2001

Arrested Aid Workers Last Heard From Nine Days Ago

BRAUNSCHWEIG. Employers of the eight Western aid workers on trial in Afghanistan since September for trying to convert Afghans to Christianity expressed growing concern on Friday for the fate of their colleagues.

"We last had telephone contact with our members a week ago Tuesday," said Udo Stolte, the chairman of Shelter Now Germany. The German Foreign Ministry on Friday also announced that a German envoy recently returned from a mission to establish contact with the prisoners without achieving anything.

The Pakistani lawyer for the group has not been in Kabul since Oct. 24, the day the Taliban declared the trial would continue despite U.S. military strikes against the regime for harboring the man believed responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Mr. Stolte said the lawyer wished to wait until the judges called him. The eight -- four Germans, two Americans and two Australians -- were arrested in early August. If convicted, they could face death sentences.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001