ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Amid the grieving for thousands of American victims of terrorism and the clamor for revenge, the fate of two U.S. aid workers imprisoned in Afghanistan has been all but forgotten.
Dayna Curry, 24, and Heather Mercer, 29, are two of eight Western aid workers on trial in the Afghan capital, Kabul, for trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. Under the ruling Taliban's harsh version of Islam, that is a crime that can mean the death penalty.
Now, their Pakistani lawyer fears a U.S. military strike at Afghanistan could destroy any hope of persuading the Muslim clerics who will pass judgment on the eight to show compassion and set them free. Even before the current crisis, Taliban officials had issued conflicting statements about what penalties the aid workers might face, including death.
Before Tuesday's attacks in the U.S., the Taliban's Supreme Court told the aid workers that they could be represented by a lawyer of their choice, and U.S. diplomats recommended Atif Ali Khan, a specialist both in Islamic law, known as Sharia, and human rights law.
Khan is still trying to persuade the Taliban embassy here in Pakistan's capital to issue him a visa so that he can defend his clients. After failing to find any Western diplomats willing to help him, he is afraid the aid workers have been abandoned.
"Especially after the [U.S. and other] diplomats left Kabul, I feel these people have been left alone," he said in an interview. "The situation is really tense now."
Khan added that he is afraid his American, Australian and German clients, who work for Germany-based Shelter Now International, "are being sacrificed."
The diplomats of the aid workers' countries "shouldn't expect me to go there all by myself and do everything," the frustrated lawyer said. "Dealing with the Taliban like this, I think I will need diplomatic help there."
A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Mark Wentworth, confirmed that consular officer David Donahue had met with Khan and speculated that the lawyer's lack of American citizenship may have short-circuited embassy efforts to assist him.
Wentworth declined any further comment, citing privacy concerns.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Foreign Ministry announced that it will no longer be able to provide direct consular or legal assistance to the four Germans detained in Kabul along with the Americans and two Australians. It said a Pakistani attorney in the Afghan capital will look after the welfare of the three women and one man and report to German diplomats in Islamabad. The statement said the situation was necessitated by a Taliban order for all foreigners to leave the country.
