After decades in detention
Bashir Noorzai was arrested in 2005 and charged with smuggling more than $50m worth of heroin into the United States
KABUL
A senior Taliban figure, Haji Bashir Noorzai, has been released after decades of detention by the United States and arrived in Kabul on Monday, a Taliban spokesperson said.
Afghan state media reports said he had been among the last Afghans held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
“Honorable Haji Bashir was released after two decades of imprisonment and arrived in Kabul today,” said Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesperson based in Doha, in a Tweet.
Noorzai was released in exchange fo US citizen Mark Frerich, who had been abducted by the Taliban before the fall of Afghanistan.
Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan tribal leader, was arrested in 2005 and charged with smuggling more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States.
Noorzai’s lawyer later denied his client was a drug dealer and argued the charges should be dismissed because US government officials duped him into believing he would not be arrested.
Afghan Taliban release American engineer Frerichs
Afghanistan’s Taliban freed on Monday American engineer Mark Frerichs in exchange for an Afghan tribal leader linked to the Taliban who the United States had held on drugs charges since 2005, the group’s acting foreign minister said.
Frerichs was exchanged at the airport in the capital, Kabul, with Bashir Noorzai, acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a news conference in the city.
Noorzai was detained by the United States on suspicion of smuggling more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States and Europe.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is ready to solve problems by negotiation with all including the United States,” Muttaqi said, referring to the Taliban.
Frerichs is an engineer and US Navy veteran from Lombard, Illinois, who worked in Afghanistan for a decade on development projects. He was abducted in February 2020.
The United States has no official representation in Afghanistan and US government officials elsewhere were not immediately available for comment.
The United States has been pushing for the release of Frerichs, including after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, as US-led foreign forces were withdrawing.
