Qatar helps release British couple imprisoned in Afghanistan

Intervention by Qatar officials has led to the release of a British couple imprisoned in Afghanistan, The National plus agencies reported on September 19th.

Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, had been held by the Taliban for eight months in a maximum security prison.

The couple are to travel to Doha for medical checks before returning to the UK. They were arrested while travelling to their home in the Bamyan province, central Afghanistan in February. 

There were widespread concerns for their health due to their age and the prison conditions. Fay Hall, an American woman detained with the couple told the BBC the pair were “literally dying” and it was clear their “time was running out.”

The couple had run a training and education organisation in Bamiyan and lived there for 18 years after their marriage in Kabul in the 1970s.

Since retaking the country in 2021, the Taliban have introduced increasingly restrictive measures in Afghan society. According to a UN investigator for human rights in the nation, the way the judicial system has been weaponised to prosecute women constitutes “crimes against humanity.” The 2004 constitution upholding the rights of women and girls has been dropped.

In July the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two top Taliban figures accusing them of persecuting Afghan women and girls, after the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary schools and universities.

The UK’s Middle East Minister, Hamish Falconer, has said Britain “worked intensively” to secure the Reynolds’ release and added Qatar “played an essential role in this case, for which I am hugely grateful.”

“I am relieved to hear that Peter and Barbie Reynolds are no longer detained in Afghanistan and their ordeal has come to an end,” he added. “I look forwards to them being reunited with their family soon.”

Their son, Jonathan, said in July that the situation had been “pretty frustrating,” after the family made several appeals to the Taliban to free the couple.

He added: “It’s horrific that they’re still held in captivity without, to our understanding, for a period of time, without any natural sunlight and not even allowed outside. So their health in so many areas in deteriorating and it’s deteriorating fast.”

Qatari officials reportedly made sure the couple had access to a doctor during their detention and mediation talks.

Qatari officials said: “Throughout their eight months in detention – during which they were largely held separately – the Qatari embassy in Kabul provided them with critical support, including access to their doctor, delivery of medication and regular communication with their family.”

The National plus agencies, Mghrebi.org