IRIA News

Afghanistan’s Taliban have freed American engineer and Navy veteran Mark Frerichs in exchange for Taliban-linked Afghan tribal leader Bashir Noorzai, the White House confirmed.

Mark Frerichs, who had spent more than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was abducted in January 2020 and is believed to have been held since then by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. Frerichs was held in captivity for 31 months. He was traded for Bashir Noorzai, a warlord and prominent member of the Taliban, who was in prison in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges for 17 years.

“Bringing Mark home has been a top priority for President Biden and his national security team,” a statement from the office of the U.S. President read. The release of Frerichs “is the culmination of years of tireless work,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Bringing the negotiations that led to Mark’s freedom to a successful resolution required difficult decisions, which I did not take lightly,” he added.

Biden said Frerichs’ release “demonstrates our enduring commitment” to the safe release and return of all Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. “We will not stop until they are reunited with their families,” he said, adding that the administration has “Much more work to do in many other cases.”

Frerichs was able to walk on his own onto the aircraft, according to a source familiar with the matter said. He is currently in Doha, Qatar and his physical and mental condition appear good.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Frerichs’s release and committed to working to free other Americans “arbitrarily and unjustly” detained abroad.

“Mark’s return to his loved ones is the result of intense engagement with the Taliban,” Blinken said, thanking the State Department team and other partners in Qatar for securing the release. “Our commitment to bring Mark home never wavered, and it will never waver for the Americans who are held captive anywhere around the world” he vowed.

Frerichs’ family praised Biden for securing his release. His sister, Charlene Cakora, said in a statement: “I am so happy to hear that my brother is safe and on his way home to us. Our family has prayed for this each day of the more than 31 months he has been a hostage. We never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us.”

U.S. hostage exchanged for Afghan drug lord

In exchange for Frerichs, Washington handed over Bashir Noorzai, a drug lord who was arrested in 2005 and sentenced in 2009 to life in prison on heroin trafficking charges for trafficking $50 million of heroin.

“After long negotiations, U.S. citizen Mark Frerichs was handed over to an American delegation, and that delegation handed over (Bashar Noorzai) to us today at Kabul airport,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said at a press conference in Kabul alongside Noorzai. “We witnessed the wonderful ceremony of one of our compatriots returning home.” 

Noorzai was given a hero’s welcome by the new Afghan government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). Photos and videos were shared by IEA showing masked Taliban soldiers greeting Noorzai with floral garlands.

Noorzai also briefly addressed the same news conference and said: “I am proud to be in the capital of my country among my brothers.”

Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Muttaqi said that the Taliban “is ready to solve problems by negotiation with all including the United States.” Muttaqi said the prisoner swap “can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi said.

The U.S. Navy veteran from Illinois was kidnapped in late January 2020 while doing construction contract work in Afghanistan. He went missing before the U.S. signed a peace deal with the Taliban. He is believed to be the last U.S. citizen detained by the Taliban.

The exchange between the United States and the Taliban-led Afghanistan government is one of the most significant prisoner swaps to take place under the Biden administration.