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Thursday March 28, 2024

US, Afghanistan swap prisoners

US President Joe Biden confirms that Afghanistan has released American engineer held prisoner for 31 months

By Agencies
September 20, 2022
A member of Taliban greets Bashar Noorzai (C), a warlord and Taliban associate during a press event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on September 19, 2022. An American navy veteran detained in Afghanistan for more than two years was released by the Taliban on September 19 in exchange for a key ally, Afghanistan´s foreign minister said. —AFP/ Wakil KOHSAR
A member of Taliban greets Bashar Noorzai (C), a warlord and Taliban associate during a press event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on September 19, 2022. An American navy veteran detained in Afghanistan for more than two years was released by the Taliban on September 19 in exchange for a key ally, Afghanistan´s foreign minister said. —AFP/ Wakil KOHSAR 

KABUL/ WASHINGTON: An American engineer detained in Afghanistan since 2020 was released by the Taliban on Monday in exchange for an ally who had spent 17 years in a US jail for heroin smuggling, Afghanistan’s foreign minister said.

US President Joe Biden confirmed that Afghanistan had released the American engineer held prisoner for 31 months.

“Today, we have secured the release of Mark Frerichs, and he will soon be home,” Biden said in a statement, adding that the release “required difficult decisions.” Mark Frerichs was working as a civil engineer on construction projects in Afghanistan when he was “taken hostage”, Washington previously said.

“After long negotiations, US citizen Mark Frerichs was handed over to an American delegation and that delegation handed over (Bashar Noorzai) to us today at Kabul airport,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said at a press conference.

“We are happy that at the Kabul International Airport, in the capital of Afghanistan, we witnessed the wonderful ceremony of one of our compatriots returning home.” Noorzai was welcomed with a hero´s fanfare by the government of the newly styled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).

Photos show he was greeted by masked Taliban officials bearing floral garlands. “If the IEA had not shown its strong determination, I would not have been here today,” Noorzai told reporters at a press conference.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan a little over a year ago as the United States and their Nato allies withdrew in a hurry from the country after 20 years of military occupation. The US State Department had previously described the navy veteran´s release as one of the government’s “core, non-negotiable priorities”.

“The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable,” US President Joe Biden had said in a statement in January.

On Monday, Biden said he spoke to the engineer’s family and that he wants him to have a safe return to the US. “Our priority now is to make sure Mark receives a healthy and safe return and is given the space and time he needs to transition back into society,” he said.

“We have much more work to do in many other cases, but Mark’s release demonstrates our enduring commitment.” Biden granted clemency to Noorzai after he spent 17 years in the US government custody, a Biden administration official said. Noorzai, a warlord and Taliban associate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for heroin smuggling and had served 17 years.

He once fought with US-backed Mujahideen forces against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and was a close associate of the group’s late founder Mullah Omar. At the time of his trial, US prosecutors said he ran a “worldwide narcotics network” and supported the Taliban’s first regime between 1996 and 2001.

“Today´s sentence definitively puts an end to Noorzai’s long criminal career,” they said at the time. While he held no official position, Noorzai had “provided strong support including weapons” for the Taliban in the 1990s, Afghanistan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Monday.

Turkiye news agency Anadolu, while quoting Afghan foreign ministry deputy spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad, said that the interim Afghan government and the US swapped prisoners under the Doha Agreement.