Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said yesterday that eight foreign aid workers held on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity would have to face trial.
The hardline Taliban ruled out any pardon for the four German, two Australian and two American aid workers, and said diplomats from their countries granted visas to go to Afghanistan would have no immediate access to the detainees.
Sixteen Afghans also being held on the same charges would not be pardoned either.
"The diplomats ... can collect their visas today. However, they can only meet the authorities of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, but not the detainees," the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Mohammad Zaeef, told a news conference in Islamabad.
A UN envoy said the ruling Taliban risked an international outcry over the case and the foreign diplomats, due to fly from Islamabad to Kabul Tuesday, said they would continue pushing to meet their nationals detained with the Afghans more than a week ago.
"They will not grant us access to the detainees ... but we have decided to go to Kabul to press on with getting access to them," a German diplomat said.
All 24 detainees worked for the German-based relief group Shelter Now International.
Ruling out a pardon, the Taliban's Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mr Mawlavi Mohammad Wali, said: "The appeal for acquittal was only possible if they were not aware of our stance and announcements, or if they had done what they did through a mistake.
"After the investigation is over, an Islamic Sharia court will decide as to what sort of treatment will be adopted against them," he added.
The Taliban Foreign Minister, Mr Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, was quoted in a Saudi paper on Sunday as saying that the foreigners could be sentenced to five years in jail if convicted. However, he added that the Afghans faced execution under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The Taliban say they have seized a massive hoard of Christian material, although Mr Wali said no Afghan had admitted becoming an apostate.
He said other aid agencies in Afghanistan would now be put under tight surveillance.
"Foreign institutions and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) will be under severe surveillance by the intelligence, security and religious organs," Mr Wali said. "They should not come here under the name of aid for religious activities."
Mr Francesc Vendrell, the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, who met Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the weekend, warned of an international outcry if the case was not quickly resolved.
"I would hope that the Taliban realise that there would be a major international outcry if this situation were to prolong itself or if the (detained) Afghans were not to be dealt with in a lenient way," he said.
The latest moves prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity in Islamabad, where heads of mission from Germany, Australia and the United States were briefed by Mr Vendrell.
A meeting in Islamabad of officials from a 15-nation group of Afghanistan's main donors, including the EU, Japan, the United States, and Switzerland, said it was concerned.
It added that the safety of aid workers and the need for clear information about the situation of nationals from donor countries was a vital prerequisite for humanitarian work.