Disguised French journalist held in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 9. French journalist disguised as a woman was arrested on Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan along with two Pakistani companions, a news agency and relatives of the Pakistanis said.

The Afghan Islamic Press said the three were arrested, 35 km east of Jalalabad. They were transferred to Jalalabad for interrogation, the agency said quoting Afghan sources.

AIP quoted Taliban officials as saying the Frenchman would be charged with espionage. Taliban security seized a satellite telephone, tape recorder and other ``equipment used for spying''.

In the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, relatives of the two Pakistanis said they were journalists from a tribal area along the Afghan border.

An editor for the French weekly news magazine Paris Match said a staff member, Michel Peyrard, telephoned him late on Monday from Pakistan and said he planned to enter Afghanistan in the Jalalabad area.

Peyrard, in his mid-30s, had already ventured into Afghanistan once this month, the editor, Mr. Patrick Jarnoux, told The Associated Press in Paris.

The French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr. Francois Rivasseau, said he could not immediately confirm the report. Last month, British journalist Yvonne Ridley was arrested in the Jalalabad area after sneaking into Afghanistan to report on the current crisis. Ridley, who works for the Sunday Express of London, was released and sent to Pakistan on Monday but there was no word on the fate of her companions.

But the Afghan agency said the French detainee would not be considered a journalist and ``no release'' would be provided for him.''

- AP

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