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AFGHANISTAN

Court clears ‘Bookseller of Kabul’ author

The Norwegian author of "The Bookseller of Kabul" has been cleared by an appeals court in Oslo of claims she violated the privacy of the real-life salesman on which it was based.

Published: 14 December 2011 17:24 CET
Court clears 'Bookseller of Kabul' author
Photo: Jarle Vines (Creative Commons 3.0)

Journalist Åsne Seierstad on Wednesday welcomed the court's ruling, which overturned a July 2010 order to pay 125,000 kroner ($20,200) in damages to Suraia Rais, the bookseller's second wife.

Written in the style of a novel, "The Bookseller of Kabul" is an account of Seierstad's time living with the family of Mohammed Shah Rais in Kabul shortly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Seierstad had indeed revealed aspects of the family's private life, but that this did not contravene the law.

"I am very happy to have won and to be finished, so to speak, with this affair," she told AFP.

"It is a clear verdict: unanimous and amounting to a discharge on all the points," the writer added, insisting she had respected journalistic and ethical rules in penning the book.

Rais' lawyer, however, said he would lodge an appeal to Norway's Supreme Court.

The book was originally released in Norwegian in 2002, a year before it appeared in English and became an international bestseller, being translated into about 40 languages.

The Oslo district court had ruled last year that "the information (in the book) about Rais's thoughts and feelings is sensitive".

Seierstad has also written books based on her experiences living in Kosovo and Chechnya.

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AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

Published: 11 October 2021 15:58 CEST
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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