ISLAMABAD, Sept 5 (Kyodo) - Afghanistan's Chief Justice Maulvi Noor Mohammad Saqib said Wednesday that eight foreign aid workers now facing trial in Kabul for spreading Christianity could be put to death under Taliban laws.
''If their crime warranted imprisonment, we would sentence them to imprisonment. If their crime warranted the death sentence, we would award them the death sentence,'' Saqib told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) in an interview.
The chief justice said the charges against the eight workers of Shelter Now International can carry the death penalty.
The workers facing trial before the Supreme Court are four Germans, two Australians and two Americans arrested last month for possessing and showing Christian missionary material to Afghan nationals.
Proselytizing is illegal in Afghanistan.
The chief justice said the accused were free to employ foreign lawyers, but the presence of Western diplomats in court during the proceedings is not essential.
Western diplomats would be allowed to attend the proceedings, if decided by the bench, he said.
''Diplomats, journalists, representatives of the Vatican and the general public have equal status as far as witnessing the court proceedings is concerned,'' he was reported as saying.
Earlier reports from Kabul had said the trial of eight has already started, with charges and evidence against them delivered to the Supreme Court.
But Western diplomats who were in Kabul to witness the proceedings said they have not been informed the trial has begun.
And the chief justice said he was still studying the charges and materials brought against the group and has yet to constitute a bench to hear the case.
Saqib said he would try to include the maximum number of religious scholars and judges on the bench that will hear the case, but he refused to speculate when the trial would begin or end.
AP-NY-09-05-01 0341EDT
Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service.