KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - After weeks of trying, three Western diplomats met Tuesday with eight foreign aid workers to try to sort out their legal options, more than a week after their trial on charges of preaching Christianity in Afghanistan began here.
The diplomats met their nationals - two Americans, four Germans and two Australians - three days after the defendants appeared for the first time in the Taliban's supreme court and were told to decide either to hire a lawyer or to represent themselves.
Since then, the diplomats from the United States, Germany and Australia, as well as the parents of the two American women, have been considering lawyers who practice in a variety of countries, including several Muslim nations.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib received a written document from the aid workers, being held in a center for delinquent children in the heart of Afghanistan's beleaguered capital. He refused to disclose what it contained. But Rehmatullah Akhundzada, a court official, said: ``We received information about what they want to do in terms of a lawyer.''
Afterward, the diplomats were allowed to see the aid workers at their detention center.
The foreign aid workers of Shelter Now International, a Christian aid organization, were arrested in the beginning of August, along with 16 Afghan workers.
The Afghan staff are to be tried separately, although no date for their trial has been set.
David Donahue, the consul-general of the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Pakistan, said earlier that he and his colleagues want to meet with all eight aid workers in one room.
So far, the two male aid workers, German George Taubmann and Australian Peter Bunch, have been kept in a room separate from the six women: Americans Heather Mercer, 24, and Dayna Curry, 29; Australian Diana Thomas; and Germans Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf.
The families of the American women also have asked to visit their daughters.
Previously, those American families included Nancy Cassell, Curry's mother, and Heather Mercer's father, John. However, on Tuesday, Mercer's mother arrived. She refused to give her name or hometown at the airport in Kabul.
The Taliban espouse a harsh version of Islam that they say follows the literal interpretation of the Islamic holy book, the Quran. Their interpretation has often run contrary to other Muslim countries and Islamic scholars.
However, they maintain their version is a ``pure'' Islamic system.
In July, the Taliban issued an edict saying the penalty for a foreigner suspected of proselytizing a religion other than Islam was jail and expulsion, but Saqib has refused to say whether he is operating under that edict.
The penalty for Afghans who preach or convert to another religion is death.
AP-NY-09-11-01 0624EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.