Taliban accused at UK trial

LONDON, England -- An Afghan on trial in the UK has given a glimpse of what he says was Taliban brutality and how it led to him fleeing his homeland.

Ali Safi, 38, is accused of hijacking a plane during an internal flight in Afghanistan last year.

He told jurors at London's Old Bailey court on Wednesday that he witnessed massacres, public executions and amputations after the Taliban took control of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998.

"I could see they were killing civilians. People were falling around us but we were incapable of helping them," Safi told the court through an interpreter.

Safi is standing trial with 10 other men accused of hijacking and arms and explosives offences. They are alleged to have taken control of an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 carrying more than 180 people in February 2000.

The plane landed in Britain after stopping in Central Asia and Russia. The hijacking ended four days after arriving in Britain with a peaceful surrender at Stansted airport north of London.

Safi said he saw a woman stoned to death in front of her eight-year-old child, while he said he was beaten for playing chess after it was banned by the Taliban.

He said his two-year-old son had died from a respiratory problem because Taliban authorities would not allow his wife to go to a hospital unless she was accompanied by a man.

"He died because of a very ordinary children's illness because I was not at home and my wife could not take him to hospital. The Taliban would not let her," Safi told jurors.

Safi said he was the leader of the Young Intellectuals of Afghanistan, whose members were on a Taliban wanted list.

"When we saw our names, we felt we were in a circle of fire -- and the fire was the Taliban surrounding us," he said.

Prosecutors say the hijacking cannot be justified by the repression the defendants say they faced in Afghanistan.

An earlier trial ended in April with a jury acquitting two defendants but failing to reach a verdict on nine others. A 10th was cleared of hijack but still faces other charges.

If convicted, Safi faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.