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| Afghanistan |
| Afghanistan frees Italian aid workers |
| 2010-04-19 |
| Three Italian aid workers accused of involvement of a plot to kill the governor of an Afghan province have been freed after an investigation concluded they were "not guilty". They were handed over to Italian authorities in Afghanistan on Sunday and were said to be in good condition. The release came after an investigation by Afghanistan's intelligence agency concluded that the three men, who were working as doctors, had no part in a Taliban plot to assassinate Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand. The men were detained after suicide vests, home-made bombs, guns and ammunition were apparently found in a storeroom at the hospital run by the Italian medical charity Emergency. "Emergency is not involved in this episode. We have 1,000 workers [in Afghanistan] and I would like to know who is responsible for this plot," Garatti said after his release. "It is possible the weapons could get in the hospital without our knowledge, we are not there 24 hours." The arrest of the aid workers had caused a public outcry in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, sent a letter to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and dispatched a special envoy to seek the men's release. On Saturday, thousands took to the streets in central Rome to demand that charges against the doctors were dropped. All but one of the men's six Afghan colleagues who were arrested in the incident had also been released on Sunday, Afghan officials said. |
| Posted by:Pappy |