Brit elderly couple ‘is dying’ in Taliban prison

United Nations human rights experts have insisted on the release of the British couple, Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who are both in their 70s, warning they are at risk of irreparable health harm or even death in a prison in Kabul under Taliban control.

Peter and Barbie Reynolds, who are in their 70s and who have lived in the country for 18 years, were arrested in early February after being taken from their home in central Bamiyan province to the capital, Kabul.

“It is inhumane to keep them locked up in such degrading conditions and more worrying when their health is so fragile,” said the UN experts, who called for their immediate transfer to a civilian hospital, Euro News reported on Wednesday.

According to UN experts, Reynolds’ time in detention included periods in a maximum-security facility and in underground cells, before being transferred to above-ground cells at the General Directorate of Intelligence in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Release is underway

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi refuted the UN’s comments. “They are in constant contact with their families,” he told reporters at a media briefing in Kabul on Wednesday.

“Consular services are available. Efforts are underway to secure their release. These steps have not yet been completed. Their human rights are being respected. They are being given full access to treatment, contact and accommodation,” Muttaqi added.

Peter needs heart medication and, during his detention, suffered two eye infections as well as intermittent tremors in his head and down his left arm, his son. He recently collapsed, the UN statement added, while Barbie suffers from anaemia and remains weak.

Their son Jonathan Reynolds said their health was rapidly deteriorating, with his father suffering serious convulsions and his mother “numb” from anaemia and malnutrition.

Chained to murderers

“My dad was chained to murderers and criminals,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding that they had at one point been held in a basement for six weeks without sunlight, and not allowed out.

The couple’s adult children issued a statement on Sunday, stating that Peter and Barbie have no bed or furniture and sleep on a mattress on the floor. Peter’s face is red, peeling and bleeding, likely due to the return of skin cancer that urgently needs removing, they said.

“We, their four adult children, have written privately to the Taliban leadership twice, pleading for them to uphold their beliefs of compassion, mercy, fairness, and human dignity,” the children said.

Officials from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) visited the couple last week, the family said. “We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan,” an FCDO spokesperson said.

Do not travel to Afghanistan

The UK shut its embassy in Kabul and withdrew its diplomats from the country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

The FCDO said support for British nationals in Afghanistan is therefore “severely limited” and advises not to travel to the country.