The ruling Taliban have accused a burqa-clad French reporter arrested in eastern Afghanistan of spying and said they will try him in a special court, the Afghan Islamic Press agency reported today.
A Taliban spokesman in Jalalabad said Mr Michel Peyrard, a reporter for the French weekly
Paris Match
, had a satellite telephone, tape recorder and other spying instruments when he was arrested inside Afghanistan earlier today.
"His mission was totally a spying mission and no leniency will be shown to him," the Pakistan-based AIP quoted the spokesman as saying.
British reporter Ms Yvonne Ridley, released yesterday after 10 days of Afghan captivity, was also accused of espionage when she was arrested while wearing the traditional woman's head-to-toe veil on a clandestine trip inside Afghanistan.