Seized journalist 'appears well'

Reports say Yvonne Ridley is being treated well

The mother of the British journalist being held by the Taleban says aid workers have seen her daughter and she appears to be well.

Joyce Ridley told BBC Radio Newcastle that Red Cross workers had seen her daughter, Yvonne, who was seized in Afghanistan on Friday.

The workers said the 43-year-old Sunday Express journalist seemed to be in good condition. The Afghan Islamic Press agency also quoted sources saying she was being well treated.

Knowing Yvonne she will get her own way during this

Ms Ridley's mother Joyce

Diplomatic efforts to secure her release are continuing.

Reports from Afghanistan on Sunday said the Taleban had sent a special team to the north eastern city of Jalalabad to investigate whether Ms Ridley was a spy.

She had allegedly illegally entered the country without any identity papers, disguised in Afghan traditional dress.

Ms Ridley is reportedly being detained in a house with a garden, and is free to roam around the compound.

She is being provided with clean clothes, food four or five times a day and cigarettes, the Afghan Islamic Press quoted Taleban sources as saying.

Hopes raised

Ms Ridley's parents, Joyce and Allan Ridley from County Durham, have been caring for their eight-year-old granddaughter, Daisy, since the reporter was seized.

On being told of the reports from Afghanistan that she was being treated fairly, Mrs Ridley said: "That doesn't surprise me, she will have probably insisted on those things.

Ms Ridley went to see plight of refugees

"Knowing Yvonne she will get her own way during this."

Mrs Ridley added that she was more hopeful about the whole situation after being told by Yvonne's colleagues that she would be released once her journalistic credentials were confirmed.

"A reporter has been sent out to get her things from the hotel and among them will be her passport and we are hopeful of her being released," she said.

Fears grew for Ms Ridley on Saturday after Taleban-controlled radio reported that the journalist had been arrested on suspicion of spying.

The Sunday Express editor, Martin Townsend, made a personal appeal for his employee's safe return, adding that the paper had given its full support to her decision to enter the country illegally.

In a letter published in his newspaper he said she had done so to report on the "growing humanitarian crisis" there.

Interrogation

The radio report said Ms Ridley had told officials she entered Afghanistan illegally to prepare reports about living conditions inside the country and had left her legal documents in Islamabad in Pakistan.

It also claimed that during interrogation the 43-year-old journalist said she "regretted her action and described it as foolish".

Ms Ridley has worked for The Sunday Times, the Observer and the Independent and covered stories in Cyprus, Damascus, Lockerbie and Northern Ireland.