Wednesday, December 7 2005 16:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kabul: An Indian, an American and two Britons were scheduled to be tried on gun-smuggling charges today (Dec 07, 2005) in a case a defense lawyer said is marred by procedural errors and a lack of evidence.

The foreigners, jailed since their Oct. 13 arrests, face up to six years in prison if convicted in the Public Security Court in Kabul.

Indian Naveen Joshi, Californian Sargon Heinrich, and the Britons, Peter Eaton and Michael Shaw, were arrested in a police raid on the guest house where they were staying,Heinrich's lawyer, Najibullah Azizi, told sources. Prosecutors claim the suspects were involved in a deal to sell 100 guns to an Afghan man, Azizi said yesterday. He said prosecutors alleged one gun had been given as a sample to an undercover police officer who was posing as a buyer.

Police claimed they found five Kalashnikov rifles and two pistols in the raid, Azizi said. He said Heinrich, a businessman involved in construction in Afghanistan, had voluntarily handed over a pistol he had been given by a helicopter pilot for security because of his work in volatile parts of the country.

Azizi called Heinrich's arrest 'a very big misunderstanding' and said prosecutors had no evidence of his guilt. He said Heinrich had no license for the pistol, but that under Afghan law, the possession or sale of a gun is not punishable by prison time.

Azizi claimed that police arrested the foreigners without approval from prosecutors and made other errors that tainted their case.