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THURMONT, Maryland, July 12 (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday welcomed the release of a septuagenarian American aid worker arrested by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia but ridiculed espionage charges lodged against her. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters that Mary MacMakin, who was released earlier Wednesday and ordered to leave Afghanistan within 24 hours, was expected to arrive in Peshawar, Pakistan on Thursday. "We welcome her release (but) we believe the Taliban's charges against her are ridiculous and that she should be allowed to continue her important work in Afghanistan," he said, adding that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had taken a personal interest in MacMakin's case. "Secretary Albright is personally concerned with this matter and she is staying closely informed," Boucher said here at a press center set up for journalists covering the nearby Middle East peace summit at the Camp David presidential retreat. Washington on Tuesday had demanded her immediate release and said it had contacted Taliban officials in New York and was working with the United Nations to secure her freedom. MacMakin, 71, who was held for four days on charges of spying and spreading anti-Taliban propaganda, described her detention as a "big joke" and vowed to keep working with Afghan women. The normal punishment for spying in Afghanistan is death but the Taliban's powerful religious police minister Mawlawi Mohammad Wali said MacMakin would only be thrown out of the country. MacMakin and seven of her Afghan female colleagues from the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan, an aid agency for war widows, were rounded up by the religious police on Sunday. |
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