A British couple who were detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan for nearly eight months have said they feared they would be executed. Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were reunited with their family in the UK after arriving at Heathrow on Saturday.
The couple, who ran a charitable training programme approved by the Taliban, were arrested on 1 February along with their interpreter, Juya, and an American friend, Faye Hall. They were returning to their home in Bamyan province when they were taken into custody. Peter told the Sunday Times: 'We began to think that we would never be released, or that we were even being held until we were executed.'
Barbie said the hardest part of the ordeal was seeing her husband struggling to get into a police truck with his hands and ankles chained. The couple were initially held in a maximum security facility, then in underground cells without daylight, before being transferred to intelligence services in Kabul, according to UN experts.
Their release was secured through negotiations led by Qatari officials. Faye Hall was released in March, but the fate of their interpreter Juya remains unknown. The couple's children expressed 'immense joy' at their parents' release, with son Jonathan Reynolds telling the BBC he was 'ecstatic and massively grateful' to those involved.
Despite their ordeal, Barbie said they hoped to return to Afghanistan, stating: 'We are Afghan citizens.' The Taliban foreign ministry spokesperson said the couple had 'violated the laws of Afghanistan' and were released following a judicial process.
