According to a recent report, Taliban officials hoped to exchange eight arrested aid workers for a convicted terrorist in U.S. custody before the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York.
Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told an Italian newspaper that the Taliban government would have considered expelling the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans in exchange for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is currently imprisoned in the United States for organizing terrorist bombings against the World Trade Center in 1993.
Muttawakil denied reports that he had been negotiating with Washington, D.C., for the release of the workers of the Germany-based Shelter Now International and said that any such exchange would occur after the workers had been tried by the Taliban for spreading Christianity. More than 35 Afghans also arrested and charged with proselytizing could face death sentences if found guilty. (EP)
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