Taliban may have released western aid workers - report

The eight western aid workers, held by the Taliban for spreading Christianity, may have been released, it was reported today.

Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper said the German government had reports from foreign intelligence agencies suggesting the eight may already have been released.

A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry said she could not comment on the report.

The Christian aid agency Shelter Now, which employs all eight, declined to comment on the report but said it would hold a news conference at 1300 GMT.

The eight - four Germans, two Americans and two Australians - were in Afghanistan for the German based Christian organisation Shelter Now International.

They have been held since August 3 on charges of trying to convert Muslims, a serious offence in Islamic Afghanistan.

Taliban Supreme Court judges have indefinitely postponed their trial, saying they fear their anger at the United States over the air strikes could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling in the case.

Yesterday, the eight were moved from their cells in a detention centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and were taken to the south by retreating Taliban forces.

They are believed to have been moved to Kandahar but the German newspaper reported that they were thought to be heading back to Kabul.