Three journalists detained for suspected links to Taliban propaganda networks were freed in Afghanistan after angry reactions from media advocates and President Hamid Karzai’s call for their quick release.
Mohammad Nadir, a television cameraman for al-Jazeera, and Rahmatullah Naikzad, who worked for both al-Jazeera and The Associated Press, were released by NATO, the military alliance said on Friday.
“After reviewing the initial intelligence and information received during questioning, the two men were not considered a significant security threat and were released,” Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said. “During their brief detention, they were treated humanely and in accordance with international law and US policies.”
A third journalist, Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager in Kapisa province north of Kabul, who was held by Afghan intelligence officials also was freed, NATO said. The intelligence service would not say when he was released or disclose information about why Mujadadi was apprehended on Sept. 18, the same day as the Afghan parliamentary elections.
Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said he thought Karzai’s decision on Thursday, instructing the Ministry of Information and Culture to follow up on the detentions and work for the journalists’ freedom, could have sped their release.
He said he didn’t think NATO was doing itself any favors by detaining journalists in the middle of the night.
“All of these men were recognized as legitimate journalists,” Dietz said. “They never should have been detained in the first place.”
Dietz also said media coverage of the detentions might have been a factor in their quick release.
Al-Jazeera, which has extensive contacts within insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Nadir and Naikzad were both innocent.
Their contacts with the Taliban should not be viewed as a criminal offense, but rather a necessary part of their work as journalists.
The coalition said they suspected Naikzad of working with the Taliban to spread insurgent propaganda and film attacks tied to parliamentary elections held last weekend.
Naikzad, a Muslim, complained that he was not given proper time for prayer.
The interrogators asked him, “Who is your contact with the Taliban?” He said he told them “Everybody is talking with the Taliban. I’m not calling the Taliban. The Taliban are calling the media.”
“The American investigators told me, ‘If you are talking with the Taliban on the basis of doing a story, no problem, but the reports that have come to us is that you are giving information to the Taliban,’” Naikzad said.
He said that during his custody, he was sad and uncomfortable and kept recalling the early morning raid on his home.
“Now I’m very, very happy,” he said. “I can see my wife, my children, my mother, my family. I’m so, so glad. It is a gift God has given me.”
Separately, two NATO service members died on Friday following an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan. NATO did not disclose further details.
Also in the east, about 30 insurgents were killed during an operation involving a combined force of more than 250 Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, and coalition soldiers.
The force received small-arms fire in Alishing district of Laghman Province. No civilians were harmed during the operation, NATO said in a statement on Friday.
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