Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Sunday released a US citizen from detention, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.
In a statement the Taliban identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.
Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.
Photo: Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,” the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on social media, using the official name for the government.
“The Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy,” it said.
Little is known about Amiri’s case, as it has not been widely reported. An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, “had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024.”
The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar, for medical checks before continuing back to the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, saying that he had been “wrongfully detained” in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.
US President Donald Trump “has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,” Rubio wrote on social media.
In January, two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the US.
Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.
At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The US is offering a US$5 million reward for information to find him. The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.
Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.
The couple were arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.
The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programs for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.
All the releases have been mediated by Qatar. Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan. Russia is the only nation to have officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.
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