An American contractor stored hostage in Afghanistan since 2020 has been launched in a prisoner swap for a Taliban drug lord who had been held in US authorities custody since his seize 17 years in the past, the White Home stated on Monday.
Mark Frerichs, a US Navy veteran and civilian contractor, was kidnapped two years in the past in Kabul the place it was believed he was held captive by the Taliban-linked Haqqani community.
“His launch is the end result of years of tireless work by devoted public servants throughout our authorities and different associate governments, and I need to thank them for all that effort,” President Biden stated in a press release.
Frerichs’ sister, Charlene Cakora, of Lombard, Sick., thanked the federal government for working to free her brother.
“I'm so joyful to listen to that my brother is secure and on his approach residence to us. Our household has prayed for this every day of the greater than 31 months he has been a hostage. We by no means gave up hope that he would survive and are available residence safely to us,” Cakora shelp in a press release.
The Taliban official launched, Bashir Noorzai, was convicted in 2005 of smuggling $50 million value of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the US and was serving a life sentence.
Noorzai advised reporters in Kabul that he had been launched from an unspecified jail within the US, however different Taliban officers stated he had been held at a detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s appearing international minister, stated the prisoner change marked a “new period” in relations with the US.
“This is usually a new chapter between Afghanistan and the US, this could open a brand new door for talks between each international locations,” Muttaqi stated at a information convention in Kabul alongside Noorzai.
“This act exhibits us that each one issues could be solved via talks and I thank each side’ groups who labored so onerous for this to occur,” Muttaqi continued.
He stated the swap occurred on the Kabul airport.
The discharge of Frerichs, who was kidnapped on Jan. 31, 2020, had been the subject of negotiations between US and Taliban officers as a part of the continued talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to achieve an settlement to take away American troops from Afghanistan, the Washington Submit reported.
An administration official advised the newspaper that Biden’s resolution to launch Noorzai in change for Frerichs was “tough.”
With Submit wires
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