Taliban probes spy claims against British journalist

The Taliban has sent a special team to the northeastern city of Jalalabad to investigate the case of a British journalist who was arrested after sneaking into Afghanistan, a news agency reported today.

British reporter Yvonne Ridley, 43, who works for the Sunday Express in London, was arrested on Friday along with two Afghan companions in the Dour Daba district of eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban reported. She was taken to Jalalabad for investigation on possible espionage charges.

The Afghan Islamic Press, quoting Taliban sources, said the special team wanted to determine if she was a spy. The team did not know how long the investigation would last.

In the meantime, the agency said, Ridley was being detained in a house with a garden, and she was free to roam around the compound.

She was being provided with clean clothes, food four or five times a day and cigarettes, the agency said.

It did not say what had happened to the two Afghans arrested with her.

In the UK, Ridley’s father Alan Ridley said he had not told her eight-year-old daughter, Daisy, that her mother has been arrested.

Ridley said he only heard of his daughter’s detention when he went to fetch his granddaughter from her boarding school, which had been informed of the development.

The Afghan Islamic Press said Ridley was wearing traditional Afghan dress and was not carrying any travel documents when she was arrested.