TALIBAN CHARGE THREE JOURNALISTS WITH SPYING

Michel Peyrard, who works for the French news magazine Paris Match, was arrested on Tuesday 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 court would definitely go ahead."Any journalists entering illegally into Afghanistan will be treated like an American soldier," he said.
“Michel is fine and he is getting food of his choice. A doctor is also checking them. Michel is now seeking a pardon but we will definitely put him on trial."
However an Italian TV channel reported that Peyrard and his two Pakistani colleagues had been paraded in their burqas in the streets of Jalabad and pelted with stones.
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."
Peyrard´s colleagues at Paris Match have dismissed the suggestion that he was a spy. He was dressed as a woman because it was the only way of getting into Afghanistan, Paris Match news editor Marion Mertens told BBC News Online.
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.
Last month, the UK Sunday Express reporter Yvonne Ridley was also detained near Jalalabad while wearing a burqa, the full-length veil which all women in Taliban-controlled areas are required to wear.
She was arrested with two Afghan guides, whose fate is still not known.
Despite fears that she would be put on trial for spying, she was released on Monday at the border with Pakistan.