Australian Prime Minister John Howard rang the families...

Australian Prime Minister John Howard rang the families of two aid workers on trial in Afghanistan after an apparent slip of the tongue in which he said they were guilty of no more than preaching Christianity.
Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas are among eight foreign aid workers facing a possible death sentence in Kabul for allegedly converting Muslims to Christianity in contravention of strict edicts by the ruling Taliban movement. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Howard told reporters: "We can't have a situation where the safety and the treatment of people who are doing nothing but preaching Christianity are put under threat in the way that the Taliban have done in relation to these people."
Howard's office said the prime minister had been stating a general principle. "With regard to this specific case, he accepts fully they were not preaching Christianity, that they were aid workers," a spokesman for Howard said.(Sources: Reuters, Age (Melbourne) 09/10/2001) October 9, 2001: Australian Prime Minister John Howard rang the families of two aid workers on trial in Afghanistan after an apparent slip of the tongue in which he said they were guilty of no more than preaching Christianity.
Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas are among eight foreign aid workers facing a possible death sentence in Kabul for allegedly converting Muslims to Christianity in contravention of strict edicts by the ruling Taliban movement. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Howard told reporters: "We can't have a situation where the safety and the treatment of people who are doing nothing but preaching Christianity are put under threat in the way that the Taliban have done in relation to these people."
Howard's office said the prime minister had been stating a general principle. "With regard to this specific case, he accepts fully they were not preaching Christianity, that they were aid workers," a spokesman for Howard said.