Sawt Falasteen - Taliban release detained elderly British couple

Taliban officials have refused to detail why Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbara, 76, were arrested in February as they were returning to their home.

"We've been treated very well. We're looking forward to seeing our children," said Barbara, in a red headscarf, standing next to her bearded husband, near a plane on the tarmac of Kabul airport.

"We are looking forward to returning to Afghanistan if we can. We are Afghan citizens," she added, after Qatar-facilitated negotiations for their release.

The couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan running educational programmes for women and children. They also became official Afghan citizens.

When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the couple remained in Afghanistan against the advice of the British embassy.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi in a statement posted on social media said the couple were handed over to the UK's special representative to the country Richard Lindsay.

"Two British nationals named Peter and Barbara Reynolds, who had violated the laws of Afghanistan, were released from custody today following the judicial process," Balkhi added.

Images of the couple standing together with Lindsay at Kabul airport before their departure to the Qatari capital Doha were broadcast on Sky News.

"They are very relieved to be to be going home," Lindsay told the broadcaster.

The couple were first held in a maximum security facility, "then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred" to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to UN experts.

In late July, the independent UN human rights experts called for the Taliban government to free the pair warning of the "rapid deterioration" of their physical and mental health, stating that they "risk irreparable harm or even death".

Their family had made repeated pleas about their ailing health after their arrest.

Hamish Falconer, the UK's minister for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in a statement that he was "relieved... their ordeal has come to an end".

He added that it was against travel advice for British citizens to visit Afghanistan, warning that the government's ability to offer consular assistance "is extremely limited".

Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.

Only a handful of embassies have reopened in the capital after most evacuated at the end of the NATO-led war against Taliban militants.

Foreign ministry spokesman Balkhi in his statement said that the government "does not view the matters of citizens from a political or transactional angle", adding that "Afghans, wherever they may be, should also receive consular services".

It comes after Washington's special envoy on hostages, Adam Boehler, made a rare visit on Saturday to Kabul to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange.

At least one US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is held in Afghanistan.

Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of the US military.

A Qatari official, on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told AFP that the couple were "safely released from detention in Afghanistan following mediation led by Qatar".

"The Qataris had been engaged with the Afghan authorities for many months, working in close coordination with the British government," he added.

Y.Shaath--SF-PST