An elderly British couple held by the Taliban in Afghanistan for almost eight months have been released, News.Az reports, citing BBC.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, who had been residents of Afghanistan for nearly 20 years, were detained on 1 February while travelling home.
The couple were freed through Qatari mediation. A Qatari official said they would fly to Qatar for medical checks before travelling on to the UK, despite having a long-term home in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province.
The Taliban said the pair had broken Afghan laws and were released after judicial proceedings - but has never disclosed the reason for their detention.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds married in Kabul in 1970 and spent the past 18 years running a charitable training programme that had been approved by local Taliban officials when the armed group reclaimed power in 2021.
They have been described by family as having a lifelong love of Afghanistan, typified by their decision to remain there after the authoritarian regime seized control in August 2021, when many other Westerners left.
Their release follows months of public lobbying by their family, who have described the harrowing conditions of their detention.
The couple's son, Jonathan Reynolds, told the BBC in July that his father had been suffering serious convulsion and his mother was "numb" from anaemia and malnutrition.
"My dad was chained to murderers and criminals," he said at the time, adding that they had at one point been held in a basement for six weeks without sunlight.
Sarah Entwistle, their daughter, previously said her father had suffered a mini-stroke, while the UN warned that without medical care the couple were at risk of irreparable harm.
