Taliban Denies Bin Laden Is Being Detained

A spokesman for the leader of the Taliban militia in Afghanistan on Saturday denied reports that the alleged mastermind of the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa has been placed under house arrest.

Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden “is free to go anywhere he wants in Afghanistan,” Wakil Ahmed, the spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, said.

However, Bin Laden was prohibited from talking to the media or conducting political activity and would be prosecuted if there is proof he has committed a crime, he said. “We have high courts in Afghanistan, and we will try him.”

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al Quds al Arabi reported Friday that Bin Laden was being held in a house in the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan.

Citing sources close to Bin Laden, the newspaper said the Taliban religious army has “prevented any contacts between him and his followers” and prohibited access to the media.

Al Quds al Arabi said the Taliban, fearful of the repercussions of Bin Laden’s growing notoriety, put him under house arrest to prevent him from contacting international media.

The newspaper report came less than a week after a ranking Taliban official said Bin Laden could stay in Afghanistan as long as he wants, even if his presence invites another barrage of U.S. missiles.

The United States fired Tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for the Aug. 7 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 260 people and wounded thousands.

Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire who moved to Afghanistan in 1996 after living in Sudan for several years, has denied any involvement in the embassy bombings but has made threats against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia.