US releases Afghan drug lord

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Bashir Nursai (center): The former drug lord was received in the Afghan capital Kabul after his release

Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

The US has agreed on a prisoner swap with the Taliban.

Washington has released top Afghan drug lord Bashir Nursai from prison.

Nursai was received by the Taliban in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday morning local time after his release.

In return, the Taliban released American engineer Mark Frerichs.

He was kidnapped in January 2020.

Bashir Nursai had supplied arms to the Taliban during their first rule in the 1990s.

After the turn of the millennium, he was recruited by the USA as a secret agent.

The United States had previously invaded Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

However, in 2005, Nursai was arrested in the States for heroin smuggling and sentenced to life in prison in 2008.

According to the FBI, he was considered one of the most powerful and dangerous drug lords in the world at the time.

Taliban officials had claimed that Nursai was being held at Guantánamo.

According to the AP news agency, these statements could not be confirmed.

Thousands of Taliban fighters released after peace deal

The controversial Guantánamo prison camp is located in Cuba at the US naval base Guantánamo Bay.

At times almost 800 people were imprisoned there.

The camp was set up by Republican President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to hold suspected Islamist terrorists without trial.

This was seen internationally as a violation of the rule of law and triggered sharp protests.

Bush's successor, the Democrat Barack Obama, wanted to close the prison camp, but failed because of resistance in the US Congress.

Republican Donald Trump, on the other hand, wanted to keep the camp open.

Biden - who was once Obama's vice president - has again stated that the goal is closure.

The release of former Taliban allies is not an isolated case.

Thousands of Taliban fighters and supporters were also released from prison after the 2020 peace deal between the US and the Taliban in Doha.

Not least because of this, the peace treaty met with sharp criticism in Afghanistan.

According to many Afghans, the release paved the way for the Taliban to triumph.

In August 2021 - after the chaotic withdrawal of NATO troops - the militant Islamists took power in Afghanistan again.

Without the Taliban, his release would have been "impossible," Nursai said.

US officials have not commented on this for the time being.

asc/dpa/AP