Caroline Hawleydiplomatic correspondent and
Aleks Phillips
Video shows Barbie and Peter Reynolds after their release
A British couple who were detained for nearly eight months by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been released.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, who have lived in the country for nearly two decades, were on their way home when they were stopped on 1 February.
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.
QATARI GOVERNMENT
Barbie and Peter Reynolds (right) will first fly to Qatar for medical checks, before returning to the UK
Just six days ago, an American woman who was detained with them and subsequently released told the BBC they had been “literally dying” in prison and that “time is running out”.
Faye Hall, who was let go two months into her detention, highlighted that the elderly couple’s health had deteriorated rapidly while in prison.
A Qatari official told the BBC that the couple were moved from Kabul’s central prison to a larger facility with better conditions during the final stage of negotiations over their release.
Handout
The pair have a lifelong love of Afghanistan, family say
The official also said the Qatari embassy in Kabul had provided them with medication, access to a doctor and means of communicating with their family while in prison.
Taliban officials maintained they received adequate medical care in prison and their human rights were respected.
The UK does not recognise the Taliban government and closed its embassy in Kabul when the group returned to power.
The Foreign Office says support for British nationals in Afghanistan is therefore “severely limited” and advises against all travel to the country.
A Taliban official said Peter and Barbie Reynolds were handed over to the UK’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Lindsay, who was pictured with the couple aboard their flight to Qatar.
The UK’s Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he was relieved that the pair had now been freed, adding: “I look forward to them being reunited with their family soon.”
He said the UK had “worked intensively” to secure their release, while Qatar “played an essential role in this case, for which I am hugely grateful”.