TALIBAN HAND OVER FRENCH JOURNALIST

Michel Peyrard, who had entered the country illegally and disguised himself as an Afghan woman, appeared relaxed and was smiling when he crossed the border after sundown.
“I was not tortured,” he told reporters. “They were treating me fairly and they gave me food. They questioned me about my profession. This morning they told me ´you are going home.´”
Peyrard´s two Pakistani companions - Mohammad Arfan and Mukrram Khan - were also expected to be released but at the last minute were ordered back to the Afghan city of Jalalabad, the French reporter said.
Peyrard, who works for Paris Match magazine, was arrested Oct. 9 in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban authorities had threatened to try him as a spy.
In Paris, President Jacques Chirac hailed Peyrard´s release, saying “this liberation marks the importance attached to the full respect of the freedom of the press.”
“An investigation has revealed that the arrested Frenchman was not a spy but a journalist.
On this basis the Afghan government has decided to release him,” AIP quoted the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef as saying.