A senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan has charged an abducted Italian journalist with spying for British forces in Afghanistan. In a statement recorded to various media organisations in Afghanistan and Pakistan via satellite phone, Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah said that Daniele Mastrogiacomo, reporter for La Repubblica newspaper, and his Afghan companion Ajmal were “spying on the Taliban in the name of journalism”.
“The journalist has confessed that he was spying and that British forces had sent him for this purpose,” Dadullah said from Quetta an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.
The Italian daily announced on Wednesday that it had heard no word from Mastrogiacomo for the past 48 hours. Paris-based media rights group Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) appealed to the Taliban to release Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal. “Mastrogiacomo is not a spy, but a journalist, one who was doing his job as a reporter. We formally appeal for his release,” RSF said in a statement on Wednesday.
But Dadullah said that Mastrogiacomo was visiting Helmand to point out Taliban strongholds to the coalition forces for bombing. “We cannot accept that our people (a reference to two arrested spokesmen of the Taliban) are in prison and western journalists walk free,” he said, adding that the fate of the Italian journalist would be “decided later”. Mastrogiacomo will not be released even if it is proven that he is not a spy, he said. |