Until then, Islamic clerics had debated evidence against the Westerners, employees of German group Shelter Now International, behind closed doors. Officials have said the aid workers can hire their own lawyers but not precisely when they will be able to defend themselves. The penalty for proselytizing has been described as anything from brief incarceration followed by deportation, to hanging.
What authorities are more willing to discuss are their alleged misdeeds. Officials have repeatedly brought out books and videotapes teaching the Bible that they claim were confiscated from Shelter Now and other aid groups. At a mosque on Friday, the supposedly open-minded chief justice in charge of the trial openly blasted the evidence he had seen thus far as “evil.”
Most observers assume that the rhetoric–and even the trial–is meant to intimidate the aid organizations that remain in Afghanistan. Yet even as Western groups are threatened with new restrictions, Muslim charities are being welcomed: the Pakistani Al-Rasheed Trust, linked to mujahedin groups fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, has opened nearly 30 bakeries in Kabul recently. The doors are open to some.
