A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay stated Monday he was launched and handed over earlier within the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in change for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan.
Bashir Noorzai, a infamous drug lord and member of the Taliban, advised reporters in Kabul that he spent 17 years and 6 months within the U.S. detention middle at Guantanamo Bay, and that he was the final Taliban prisoner there.
The Taliban-appointed overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, additionally spoke on the press convention alongside Noorzai and welcomed the change, saying it marked the beginning of a “new era” in U.S.-Taliban relations.
Muttaqi stated the launched American was Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020.
Frerichs was final seen in a video distributed earlier this yr, pleading for his launch in order that he might be reunited together with his household, in accordance with a recording posted by The New Yorker journal on the time.
There was no impartial affirmation or phrase from Washington on Frerichs’ launch.
“This can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi stated on the Kabul presser.
“This act shows us that all problems can be solved through talks and I thank both sides’ teams who worked so hard for this to happen,” Muttaqi added.
Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, was believed to be held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani community, and U.S. officers throughout two presidential administrations had tried unsuccessfully to get him house.
In the video, which marked the primary time Frerichs was seen since his abduction, he says it was filmed final November.
Videos of hostages are generally launched to point out proof that they’re alive and to facilitate negotiations for a launch, although it was not instantly clear if that was the case right here.
The New Yorker stated it obtained the clip from an unidentified particular person in Afghanistan.
At the time, the FBI declined to touch upon the video’s authenticity, however a sister of Frerichs, Charlene Cakora, issued a press release thanking the Taliban for releasing the video and describing it as “public confirmation of our family’s long-held belief that he is alive after more than two years in captivity.”
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August final yr, the Taliban have demanded the United States launch Noorzai in change for Frerichs amid expectations of such exchanges for U.S. residents held in Afghanistan.
However, there was no public signal of Washington shifting ahead on any type of prisoner commerce or change.
The Taliban additionally posted a quick video Monday on social media displaying Noorzai’s arrival on the Kabul airport the place he was welcomed by prime Taliban officers, together with Muttaqi. At the press convention, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul.
“I pray for more success of the Taliban,” he added. “I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now.”
Noorzai made no point out of his therapy at Guantanamo Bay, the detention middle used to deal with Muslim militants, together with al-Qaida fighters, the Taliban and suspects captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere following the September 11, 2001 terrorist assaults within the U.S.
The facility grew to become the main focus of worldwide controversy over alleged violations of the authorized rights of detainees underneath the Geneva Conventions and accusations of torture or abusive therapy of detainees by U.S. authorities.
After 9/11, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban who had harbored al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.
