AN ELDERLY Brit couple wrongfully jailed by the Taliban for eight months have finally been freed in Afghanistan.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were snatched by Taliban thugs and tossed into the country’s most notorious prison.
Sky News Barbie and Peter are now on their way home[/caption]
APQatari and British diplomats were seen with the released British couple aboard a plane before departing for Qatar[/caption]
They moved to Afghanistan in 2009, where they ran a training project
Footage showed the couple smiling before boarding a flight out of Afghanistan.
They were safely released from detention following mediation led by Qatar, Sky News reports.
The parents-of-four had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, managing training projects – but were kidnapped on February 1 with no explanation.
They were locked up separately at the maximum security Pul-e-Charkhi in Kabul, and later moved to an underground cell beneath the Taliban‘s intelligence HQ.
They have been together since the 1960s and married in Kabul in 1970.
Barbie and Peter are now on their way back to the UK, where they will be reunited with their family.
Speaking moments before boarding the plane out of Afghanistan, Barbie told Sky: “My message is God is good, as they say in Afghanistan.”
Husband Peter said: “We are just very thankful.”
A Qatari official told Reuters: “Throughout their eight months in detention – during which they were largely held separately – the Qatari embassy in Kabul provided them with critical support, including access to their doctor, delivery of medication, and regular communication with their family.”
The Reynolds were some of the only foreigners not to leave Afghanistan when the Taliban seized back power four years ago.
They had been living peaceful lives in the mountainous region of Bamain – famous for the giant Buddha statues blown up by the previous Taliban regime.
Their family said they had never encountered any trouble from the regime since settling there in 2009.
But Peter and Barbie were arrested on February 1 along with a Chinese-American friend, Faye Hall.
The group was detained after flying in a small plane from Kabul to an airstrip near their home in the central province of Bamiyan.
They were bundled into vans and taken to separate parts of the maximum-security prison Pul-e-Charkhi.
On May 22, the couple were moved to the headquarters of the GDI — the General Directorate of Intelligence — and put in an underground cell.
Although the couple were moved together, they have had almost no access to phones since being moved.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds were scooped up in February and thrown into a brutal prison
SuppliedThe couple, aged 80 and 76, have received no explanation for their imprisonment[/caption]
It was initially thought they had been arrested for teaching parenting skills to mothers.
The Taliban later bizarrely claimed the arrest was due to a “misunderstanding” – though they did not release them.
Hall was released on March 27 following a court order.
The Reynolds family members in the UK repeatedly called for the couple’s release, saying they were being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges.
While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
In July, their son Jonathan said the situation had been “pretty frustrating” after they made multiple appeals to the Taliban to release their parents.
At the time, he added: “It’s horrific that they’re still held in captivity without, to our understanding, for a period of time without any natural sunlight and not even allowed outside.
“So their health in so many areas is deteriorating, and it’s deteriorating fast.”
The United Nations human rights experts warned that the couple’s physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death.
Faye hall after being released