The Italian government on Wednesday again rebuffed accusations that it was not doing enough for an Afghan aid worker imprisoned after helping to free an Italian journalist held hostage by the Taliban.
Premier Romano Prodi said in a letter to Italian medical aid agency Emergency that "I have not forgotten Rahmatullah Hanefi... I can assure you that we are continuing to do the possible and impossible to see him released".
Emergency employee Hanefi was seized by Afghan security forces after helping to broker the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.
Mastrogiacomo spent two weeks in the hands of Taliban kidnappers in southern Afghanistan before being freed on March 19 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners.
Hanefi is now in prison in the Afghan capital of Kabul where his family, Emergency staff and lawyers have been denied all access to him.
Reporting to a joint session of the Senate's foreign and defence committees, Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Massimo D'Alema argued that Italy's ability to intervene in the Hanefi case was "limited".
"But we are not failing to put pressure on the Afghan government so that the accusations against him are quickly formalised and any future trial is fair," D'Alema said.
He said the Hanefi case had shown that the Afghan justice system was "operating at below acceptable standards" and would be a "test case" for seeing how serious the Afghan authorities were about "building a lawful state".
Emergency founder, top surgeon Gino Strada, responded that the Italian government could secure Hanefi's release "in 15 minutes" by threatening to withdraw its support for President Hamid Karzai's government.
"Nothing could be simpler... Hanefi is begin held illegally and must be freed immediately. There is no need for a trial because there has been no crime," said Strada, who shut down all Emergency operations in Afghanistan last week in protest at Hanefi's arrest and accusations that the agency was helping terrorists
Hanefi, the head of personnel and security at an Emergency hospital in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, is accused by the Afghan authorities of colluding with the Taliban and aiding in the murder of Adjmal Nashkbandi, Mastrogiacomo's Afghan interpreter.
Nashkbandi was kidnapped with Mastrogiacomo near Lashkar Gah on March 5.
The deal to free Mastrogiacomo involved Nashkbandi's simultaneous release but instead the Afghan remained a captive of the Taliban and was slain on April 8.
Hanefi is accused of handing over Nashkbandi to a Taliban group instead of ensuring his release and, according to Italian media reports, now faces the death penalty.
Emergency has repeatedly blasted the Italian government for allegedly not doing enough for Hanefi.
Strada accused Rome last week of "inconceivable disinterest" in the case and the Afghan government of breaching human rights.
He stressed that Hanefi was acting as mediator in the Mastrogiacomo case at Rome's request.
D'Alema said on Wednesday that the government had had "no choice" but to seek Emergency's help in the affair because the agency had shown itself capable of "activating contacts" with the Taliban.
Emergency, which began working in Afghanistan in 1999 and since then has treated more than 1.5 million people, also helped last year in the release of another Italian hostage.
But it shut down its hospitals last Friday and withdrew all international staff, saying it was no longer able to work in Afghanistan in safety after Afghan security services accused it of aiding terrorists including al-Qaeda members.
D'ALEMA SAYS US KNEW ABOUT TALIBAN PRISONER SWAP.
In other comments on Wednesday, D'Alema defended Italy's handling of the hostage case.
Rome came under fire at home and abroad over the deal for Mastrogiacomo's release, with critics - including the US and Britain - saying it encouraged kidnappings, increased the dangers faced by NATO troops in Afghanistan and went against the policy of never negotiating with terrorists.
The Italian government's unusual public admission of the deal fuelled the criticism.
Italy has been rapped in the past over its handling of hostage situations, especially in Iraq, but has never openly admitted negotiating with kidnappers or paying ransoms.
But D'Alema told the Senate committees that "we behaved in a correct and transparent way throughout the affair, toward both the Afghan government and our allies".
He said that the US had been informed of the prisoner swap.
"No intelligent person could for a moment think that the Afghan government could release five prisoners and hand them over to the Taliban without the US government being informed," the former premier said.
D'Alema also said that Italy and other countries with troops in Afghanistan were "concerned" about US operations in western Afghanistan which have killed dozens of civilians over the past week.
The foreign minister said the deaths, put at 60 by Afghan officials, risked "alienating the support of the local population".
Italy has 1,900 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan serving under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
