Islamabad, Pakistan — A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay mentioned Monday he was launched and handed over earlier within the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in alternate for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan.
Bashir Noorzai, a infamous drug lord and member of the Taliban, informed 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 information convention alongside Noorzai and welcomed the alternate, saying it marked the beginning of a "new period" in U.S.-Taliban relations.
Muttaqi mentioned the launched American was Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian engineer contractor who was kidnapped in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020. The Lombard, Illinois native was taken after going to a gathering within the Afghan capital to debate a venture.
Frerichs was final seen in a video distributed earlier this yr, pleading for his launch in order that he could be reunited together with his household, based on a recording posted by The New Yorker journal on the time.
There was no unbiased affirmation or phrase from Washington on Frerichs' launch.
"This could be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the USA, this could open a brand new door for talks between each nations," Muttaqi mentioned on the Kabul presser.
"This act reveals us that each one issues could be solved by way of talks and I thank either side' groups who labored so arduous for this to occur," 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. Within the video, which marked the primary time Frerichs was seen since his abduction, he says it was filmed final November.
Movies of hostages are generally launched to indicate 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 mentioned it obtained the clip from an unidentified particular person in Afghanistan.
At that 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 affirmation of our household's long-held perception that he's alive after greater than two years in captivity."
In July 2021, she informed CBS Information she wished to inform President Biden she is aware of he is "nicely conscious of my brother. You realize my brother's scenario. … Are you doing each effort that you could to get my brother house, such as you would if he had been your individual brother?"
Cakora informed CBS Information a day did not go by with out her imagining the second she will get phrase that her brother is coming house.
"After they give me that telephone name, and inform me that they discovered Mark and he is on a aircraft, you are going to go meet with him... I'd give him the most important hug once I see him," she mentioned. "I do not assume I would wish to let go."
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August final yr, the Taliban have demanded the USA launch Noorzai in alternate for Frerichs amid expectations of such exchanges for U.S. residents held in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, there was no public signal of Washington shifting ahead on any kind of prisoner commerce or alternate.
The Taliban additionally posted a quick video Monday on social media exhibiting Noorzai's arrival on the Kabul airport and his being welcomed by high Taliban officers, together with Muttaqi.
On the information convention, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his "mujahedeen brothers" - a reference to the Taliban - in Kabul.
"I pray for extra success of the Taliban," he added. "I hope this alternate can result in peace between Afghanistan and America, as a result of an American was launched and I'm additionally free now."
Noorzai made no point out of his remedy at Guantanamo Bay, the detention middle used to deal with Muslim militants, together with al Qaeda 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 power 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 remedy of detainees by U.S. authorities.
After 9/11, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban, who had harbored al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.