Islamabad - Taliban judges are expected to issue a verdict next week in the trial of eight foreigners held in jail in Kabul for more than two months on charges of spreading Christianity, their lawyer said yesterday.
Atif Ali Khan, the Pakistani lawyer representing the aid workers, said he believed the accused - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - would be released. "The verdict should come any time now and I am very confident that it will be an acquittal," Mr Khan said.
Last week, the lawyer passed a detailed defence written in English and Persian to the 15 judges and religious clerics sitting at Kabul's Supreme Court. Although the chief justice, Noor Mohammed Saqib, is in charge of the case, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed has made it clear he will decide the verdict himself.