Hands Off Cain
France

Michel Peyrard, who works for the French news magazine...

Michel Peyrard, who works for the French news magazine Paris Match, and two Pakistani guides identified as Mohammed Irfan and Mukkaram Khan were arrested in the east of the country wearing a full-length women's veil, or burqa

1 MIN READ
Michel Peyrard, who works for the French news magazine Paris Match, and two Pakistani guides identified as Mohammed Irfan and Mukkaram Khan were arrested in the east of the country wearing a full-length women's veil, or burqa. The three men were taken to the city of Jalalabad for questioning by Taleban intelligence officials.
Taliban intelligence chief Mullah Taj Meer, quoted by the AIP, said a spying trial in a special could would definitely go ahead. "Any journalists entering illegally into Afghanistan will be treated like an American soldier," he said.
Earlier, a Taleban official inside Afghanistan was quoted as saying that would be tried at a special court, and no leniency would be shown. .
A spokesman for the Taliban militia in Jalalabad said they had found satellite phone, a miniature tape recorder and other instruments with him. Spying carries the death penalty in Afghanistan.
The French Foreign Ministry has denied that Peyrard is a member of the intelligence forces it has deployed inside Afghanistan. ''It is clear that Michel Peyrard is a well-known journalist," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. "The accusation that he is a spy is absurd." Mr Peyrard's colleagues at Paris Match have dismissed the suggestion that he was a spy.
The media organisation Reporters Without Borders has issued an appeal to the French and Pakistani governments to use all possible contacts to win the men's release. The French Government has said it is making efforts to assist Peyrard, although full details have not been released.
SOURCES
  • (Sources: BBC News Online, 10/10/2001)