<

Christian Aid Worker Jailed by Taliban is Back in Afghanistan Despite Fears of New Trial
Friday, September 20, 2002
(4:43 PM ET)
By Todd Pitman
Associated Press Writer

Police were waiting outside as the two women walked out of the Afghan family's home. Most of what the Taliban produced as evidence -- an English-language Bible, a crucifix, a bookmark with a cross on it -- did not belong to Shelter Now or its employees, Taubmann says. The Taliban also introduced as evidence Bibles in Pashtu and Dari, the languages of Afghanistan. "We had nothing. Not one Bible (in the office). I did not allow it," he said. Taubmann acknowledged one of the American aid workers had a copy of the New Testament in Dari. He said she was using it to study the language.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
Georg Taubmann is back. It wasn't even a year ago that he was flying through the freezing Afghan night, finally safe inside a U.S. helicopter after his rescue from months in a Taliban jail on charges of preaching Christianity to Muslims.

Taubmann and seven other aid workers were spirited out of Afghanistan by the Americans after they were left behind south of Kabul as the Taliban abandoned the capital under the onslaught of U.S. bombing and northern alliance foot soldiers. American special forces airlifted the group to Pakistan.

The harrowing experience -- which included endless days inside insect-filled jails, weeks with American bombs falling on Kabul and the perpetual fear of execution -- might have kept others from returning.

Not Taubmann. The 46-year-old German returned with his wife and 15-year-old son in the face of continued official Afghan suspicion of Christian aid workers and knowing he might again be in trouble with the law.

Taubmann said new Afghan Supreme Court Chief Justice Sheikh Hadi Shinwari called for the aid workers' case to be reopened in January. A deputy supreme court justice later confirmed that proselytizing was still a crime, but said there were no plans to reopen the case. Thus, it remains unclear if Taubmann is in danger of court action on charges brought by the now-ousted Taliban.

"In my heart I had come to that point where I said ... we would probably not come out alive," Taubmann said in an interview Thursday. "But we said if God allows us, if God gives us our lives back again, I would be willing to go back to Afghanistan again and continue our work."
(More: New Jersey Online News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan