Aid workers appear before Taliban court

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Smiling at her mother, Dayna Curry mouthed the words "I love you" before leaving the Taliban court where she and seven other foreign aid workers pleaded innocent Saturday to charges of preaching Christianity in devoutly Muslim Afghanistan.

Heather Mercer, 24, the only other American on trial, clutched her father's hand throughout the hourlong proceeding in a stark room decorated with verses from the Muslim holy book, the Quran, two swords, a calendar depicting a U.S. missile attack on Afghanistan and a leather strap used for public floggings. Occasionally she fiddled with the giant blue shawl that covered her head.

Saturday marked the workers' first appearance in court and public since their arrest in early August. They face jail and expulsion if convicted.

Chief Justice Noor Mohammed Saqib told the defendants, who also include four Germans and two Australians, that they have the right to a lawyer. The lawyer, he explained, can be either Afghan or foreign, Muslim or non-Muslim.

His comments suggested the trial, in its fifth day, could last at least several more days.

Six of the aid workers are women, all of whom were draped in giant shawls, keeping with Islamic custom.

"Please leave me alone," said Curry, 29, when reporters asked whether she was afraid.