A female British journalist arrested by the Taliban for illegally entering Afghanistan is to face trial "for violating the laws of our country", the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Thursday.
The Taliban's Deputy Foreign Minister Mullah Abdul Rehman Zahed said the militia had also yet to determine whether Sunday Express reporter Yvonne Ridley, 43, "is a journalist or if she had other objectives".
"The investigation is continuing and she will face a court case once the investigations are completed. Yvonne Ridley has violated the laws of our country and she will face trial on these charges," he said.
The official told Pakistan-based AIP that regardless of whether Ridley was determined to be a journalist, "even then she will face a trial because she has entered our country without permission".
Ridley was detained on September 28 after slipping into Afghanistan disguised under an all-covering burqa cloak, accompanied by two guides. She was not carrying a passport or Taliban visa.
Taliban officials have said she is suspected of spying, a charge that carries the death penalty in areas of the country they control. She is currently detained in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Taliban security sources said Wednesday Ridley had made a statement to the hard-line militia, insisting she was in the country to assess living conditions for local people, and had offered a full apology.
The Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that Ridley was to face trial.
"We are urgently checking whether it is true," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
"If it is true, we urge the courts to treat her fairly and we also continue to urge them to resolve the case as soon as possible."
Express Newspapers spokesman Ian Monk said Ridley was in the region on assignment as chief reporter of the Sunday Express.
"She was out there as a working journalist, nothing more, nothing less, and the company continues to work closely with the Foreign Office to do everything possible to ensure her safe return."
Paul Ashford, editorial director of Northern/Shell, publishers of Express Newspapers, is in Islamabad with an Urdu-speaking lawyer to lend support to efforts to secure Ridley's release.
Ever since the crisis triggered by the September 11 attacks in the United States, the Taliban has barred nearly all foreign journalists from the areas of Afghanistan under its control, although many have entered opposition-held areas in the north.
The fundamentalist regime has also stopped issuing visas to foreigners.
The Taliban has been threatened with US military strikes unless it hands over Osama bin Laden -- the Saudi-born militant blamed by the United States for the attacks on New York and Washington -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
