Taliban says it will not hand over bin Laden

Osama bin Laden

November 6, 2000
Web posted at: 6:46 AM HKT (2246 GMT)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) -- A Taliban official was quoted on Sunday as saying Afghanistan would not expel Osama bin Laden, wanted by the United States, even if evidence linked him to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies.

"Even if there is evidence that shows his involvement, then any trial he could face would be here in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Mohammad Tayeb was quoted as saying by bab.com, a daily Arabic e-newspaper published on the Internet from Saudi Arabia.

Tayeb said the stance of Afghanistan's strictly Islamist ruling Taliban movement had been conveyed to the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan William Milam.

Milam met Afghan ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad on Thursday to repeat Washington's demand that Afghanistan expel the militant Saudi Islamist bin Laden to enable him to be put on trial.

The Taliban has repeatedly insisted the United States has failed to present it with evidence to support its allegation that the millionaire bin Laden was behind attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 which killed more than 200 people.

The United States bombed suspected bases of bin Laden's in eastern Afghanistan soon after the embassy blasts. Zaeef said Milem had assured him on Thursday that rumours that another such attack on Afghan territory was imminent were unfounded.

U.S. officials have played down suggestions that a group led by bin Laden is also suspected of the October 12 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, in which 17 American sailors died.

Bin Laden is on the FBI's "Top Most Wanted" list and the United States has offered a $5 million bounty for his capture.

The U.N. Security Council imposed aviation and financial sanctions against the Taleban last November for refusing to expel bin Laden to face trial.

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