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| Afghanistan |
| Dad begs to take place of daughter detained by Talibs |
| 2001-09-17 |
Squeezing his eyes tight to stop the tears, John Mercer said he pleaded Monday with the Taliban rulers to let him take the place of his 24-year-old daughter, Heather, jailed in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity. "I offered to go in place of my daughter,'' Mercer told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, stopping briefly to gain his composure. His head bowed, his voice shaking, Mercer said "it was a very serious offer. I would do it.'' Mercer said he met Taliban authorities at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and that they did not respond to his request. He was joined at the news conference by Heather's mother, Deborah Oddy; Oddy's husband, Delmer; and Nancy Cassell, the mother of Dayna Curry, 29, the other American woman in jail in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |