UK thanks Qatar for main negotiations for the discharge of the pair after their arrest in February.
Printed On 19 Sep 2025
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities has launched a British couple held for nearly eight months on undisclosed fees.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his spouse Barbara, 76, have been launched from jail on Friday after a court docket listening to and handed over to the United Kingdom‘s particular consultant to the nation, Richard Lindsay. The transfer adopted negotiations led by Qatar.
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International Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi stated on social media that the couple had been arrested in February for “violating” Afghan regulation, however didn’t say which laws had been damaged.
UK officers have been fast to precise aid and to thank the mediating nation.
“I welcome the discharge of Peter and Barbara Reynolds from detention in Afghanistan, and I do know this long-awaited information will come as an enormous aid to them and their household,” stated Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I need to pay tribute to the very important position performed by Qatar.”
In a press release on Friday afternoon, the Qatari International Ministry stated the couple had arrived in Qatar’s capital, Doha, and would depart for London later. It additionally expressed its appreciation for the “fruitful cooperation” between the Afghan and UK officers.
‘Wanting ahead to return’
United Nations human rights specialists had referred to as on the Taliban in July to free the pair, having warned of the “speedy deterioration” of their bodily and psychological well being, and stating that they “threat irreparable hurt and even dying”.
Photos of the couple standing collectively on Friday with the UK’s particular consultant to the nation, Richard Lindsay, at Kabul airport earlier than their departure to Doha have been broadcast on British broadcaster Sky Information.
“We’ve been handled very nicely. We’re trying ahead to seeing our youngsters,” stated Barbara, including: “We’re trying ahead to returning to Afghanistan if we will.”
The couple have been married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent nearly twenty years dwelling in Afghanistan’s central province of Bamiyan, operating instructional programmes. Additionally they turned Afghan residents.
When the Taliban retook management of Afghanistan in 2021 they remained within the nation in opposition to the recommendation of British officers.
The Reynolds’ household within the UK had made repeated requires the couple’s launch, saying they have been being mistreated and held on undisclosed fees.
Hamish Falconer, the UK’s minister for the Center East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, stated in a press release that he was “relieved… their ordeal has come to an finish,” noting that the federal government in London had “labored intensively since their detention and has supported the household all through”.
The discharge comes after Washington’s particular envoy on hostages, Adam Boehler, made a uncommon go to on Saturday to Kabul to debate the opportunity of a prisoner change.
No less than one United States citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is held in Afghanistan.
Dozens of overseas nationals have been arrested because the Taliban returned to energy in August 2021 following the withdrawal of the US navy.
