The Taliban administration announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement mediated by Qatar to free two American citizens from prison in exchange for an Afghan combatant detained in the United States.
Although the exchange of prisoners was discussed and confirmed last year, it was only made public after US President Joe Biden turned the reins over to Donald Trump, who took office on Monday.
In exchange for American citizens, Afghan combatant Khan Mohammed, who was imprisoned in America, was released and returned to Afghanistan, according to a statement from the Afghan foreign ministry. According to the ministry, Mohammed was caught “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and has been serving a life sentence in California.
On Tuesday, Mohammed, who was found guilty of narco-terrorism by a U.S. court, returned to the province, where he was welcomed by a crowd and given flower garlands.
He expressed his gratitude to the Taliban leadership for his release and told reporters that he was “very happy” to be with his family again. I ask that everyone be released so they can go back to their homes because there are a lot of innocent people in jail,” he stated.
According to his son Rafiullah Mohammed, the family wanted compensation and his father was innocent. While refusing to give any other information about the swap, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid informed media that two US citizens had been freed.
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