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French Journalist Reportedly Released by Taliban
Saturday, November 3, 2001
(9:05 AM ET)
The Associated Press

French journalist Michel Peyrard, center, talks to an unidentified French diplomat as he arrives at the Pakistani border post in Torkham, 21 miles west of Peshawar, Pakistan on Saturday.
Photo Credit: Shabbir Imam / AP.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- AP
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban released a French journalist detained after he entered the country illegally last month and disguised himself as a woman, the Afghan Islamic Press reported Saturday.

Michel Peyrard of Paris Match magazine was expected to join French authorities at the Pakistani border town of Torkhman, the agency said. It quoted the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef.

The Taliban also freed Mohammad Arfan, a Pakistani colleague who was traveling with Peyrard, the agency said. There was no word on the whereabouts of another companion, Mukrram Khan.

Peyrard was arrested Oct. 9 in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. He was dressed
in the type of head-to-toe burqa, or veil, used by Afghan women after having slipped into
the country to report on the U.S. air strikes that had begun two days earlier.

Taliban authorities had threatened to try him as a spy.

They had threatened similar charges against British journalist Yvonne Ridley when she was arrested in Afghanistan last month. She was eventually released without any trial after 10 days.

Another French journalist, 33-year-old Aziz Zemouri of the weekly Le Figaro magazine, was arrested in Afghanistan by the Taliban last month and handed over to Pakistani authorities after five days.
(NandoTimes.com News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan