LONDON: A 79-year-old Briton imprisoned in Afghanistan is living in “the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.”
Peter Reynolds and his wife Barbie were detained on Feb. 1 along with their Chinese-American friend Faye Hall and their interpreter Jaya in Bamiyan province.
The couple, who both hold Afghan passports, have lived in the country for 18 years, where they married in 1970 and run various educational projects.
They were arrested after flying to Bamiyan from Kabul in a small rented plane which they were later told lacked proper landing permission.
In a phone call, details of which were shared with the Sunday Times, Peter Reynolds described conditions in Pul-e-Charkhi prison as living in “a cage rather than a cell.”
He added: “I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man.”
Peter Reynolds said he receives only one meal a day, but he is in “VIP conditions” compared to his wife, who is being held in the women’s wing of the prison.
“The atmosphere is pretty shocking. I’m learning a lot about the underbelly of Afghanistan,” he said. “The prison guards shout all the time and beat people with a piece of piping. It’s a horrible atmosphere — the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.”
He added that the four were initially told they would shortly be released. However, their phones were confiscated and they were handed over to the Ministry of Interior in Kabul.
Officials there told him his house in Bamiyan had been raided, and 59 books “against Islam” had been found and confiscated.
“I asked, ‘Can you tell me any part of those books which is against Islam?’” Peter Reynolds said. “No one has been able to, so I think it’s an outrage.
“They’ve interrogated more than 30 people who worked with us in Yakawlang and Kabul, including our accountant and tax people, and we had to put our thumbprint on a nine-page-long CID (criminal investigation department) report and they said they could find no crime. That was three weeks ago but still they haven’t released us.”
He added: “These things are an utter disgrace and shame. The Taliban have made a mistake and need to face up to it.”
Hall was released last week after bounties worth $10 million placed on various Taliban figures, including Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, were lifted by the US.
Peter Reynolds told his family not to pay any ransoms demanded for the couple’s release. “No money should be paid in hush money or hostage money, it doesn’t solve anything if millions of dollars are paid,” he said.
“This government needs to face up to the fact it has made a mistake, it has done wrong. If money is paid there’s nothing to stop them arresting people again.”
He said although a lawyer working for the EU had delivered him medication last week, he has been denied all requests to see his wife.
Sarah Entwistle, the couple’s eldest daughter, told the Sunday Times: “The hardest part for mum and dad is this is the longest they have gone without speaking to each other since they became sweethearts in the 1960s.
“When they go to court, they are taken separately and can only see each other from behind the mesh and mouth, ‘I love you.’”
Peter Reynolds has appeared in court four times and his wife three times since their detention, but their case has not progressed.
In a phone call last week, she reassured her family that she was “in her element” and had started teaching fellow inmates English.
“This is who my parents are, even in this dark place, trying to be a hope to people,” Entwistle said. “In the midst of all this, mum and dad are still true to themselves — loving people, keeping peace and creating solutions in one of the darkest, violent and most hopeless places in the world.”
She added: “They understand the power of the Taliban but are literally prepared to sacrifice their lives for the welfare of these people. We couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Peter Reynolds said despite his ordeal, he wants to keep working in Afghanistan. “I told the Ministry of Interior I don’t want to leave here saying how bad Afghanistan is, we want to be a friend of Afghanistan.”
The couple moved to Afghanistan from the UK in 2007. Their organization Rebuild was established to provide education and training, “dedicated to fostering healthy relationships in homes, workplaces and communities across Afghanistan.”
After the fall of the Western-backed government in 2021, they decided to stay in the country as they had experienced no issues with the Taliban in the past.
Barbie Reynolds even became the first woman in the country to receive a certificate of appreciation from the new regime.
Entwistle said she had met with UK Foreign Office officials, including Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer, who said they were “doing all they can” but it could take “a few more weeks” to make progress.
Relations between the UK and the Taliban are strained, with neither having an embassy in the other’s capital.
The Sunday Times reported that the Taliban is pushing for it to be allowed to have a diplomatic presence in London, with 200,000 Afghans currently living in the UK.
