US engineer Mark Frerichs, kidnapped two years ago, has been released as part of an exchange for Bishr Nurzai, a senior Taliban official
The Taliban have released US engineer Mark Frerichs, who was kidnapped two years ago in Afghanistan, as part of a prisoner exchange that led the US giant to release Bishr Nurzai, a leading member of the fundamentalist considered a figure close to the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Mohamad Omar – as announced Monday by Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Jan Muttaqi.
Frerichs was handed over to US authorities at the Kabul airport, Muttaqi said, stressing that “violence, war and coercion never produce results” while “talks and negotiations will solve all problems”. A confirmation that, in his view, was demonstrated by the historic Doha Agreements signed between the US and Afghanistan in 2020.
The US prisoner, a Navy veteran, was kidnapped in late January 2020 while working as a construction contractor on Afghan soil. His sister, Charlene Cakora, welcomed the release. “There were some who protested the deal that brought Mark home, but President Biden did the right thing. He saved the life of an innocent veteran.”
Nurzai, for his part, stressed that the prisoner exchange will help improve bilateral relations and called on the international community to talk to Afghanistan. The senior Taliban official has spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of drug trafficking. His attorney demanded that charges against him be dropped in the United States after alleging he had been cheated on promising he would not be arrested.
The US president had already demanded the veteran’s release in January. “He was a civil engineer and helped the people of Afghanistan for ten years. He has done nothing wrong and is still being held by the Taliban for two years,” the president said.
Source: La Verdad
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