Kidnapped aid worker shown in Afghan TV footage

A private Afghan television station today broadcast what it claimed was a video of a female German aid worker who was kidnapped a day earlier from a Kabul restaurant.

The woman, shown sitting on the floor inside a room, her head covered with a white scarf, identified herself as Christina Meier.

She said “I am OK” and then read a letter in the local language, Dari, calling for the release of unnamed prisoners.

She was prompted to make remarks both in English and in Dari by a man speaking in broken English.

The man then instructed her to show a copy of her German passport and an ID card issued by the aid group she works for.

“I am fine. There are no threats against me. I want my country to do what it can for my release,” she said in Dari, reading from a piece of paper.

Tolo TV, which broadcast the video, did not say how it obtained it.