VANCOUVER, CANADA – The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has released Ezzatullah Zawab, a poet and writer from Nangarhar, after 117 days of captivity. The group’s forces arrested Mr. Zawab on January 4, 2024, on alleged charges of transporting alcohol and other illegal substances when he was on his way from Kabul to Jalalabad.
According to the the Afghanistan Journalists Center Ezzatullah Zawab, was the editor-in-chief of ‘Meena’ magazine in Nangarhar province.
Mr. Zawab reportedly told the Afghanistan Journalists Center that he was released from the Taliban’s anti-narcotics prison in Kabul yesterday evening, May 20. According to AJC, he was tried two days before his release on charges of carrying ‘non-Halal substances’, accusations that he did not accept. The court reportedly then issued a release order.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center said that Zawab had previously been threatened for writing and publishing poetry related to the Taliban ban on girls’ education, but the Taliban told his family that his detention was not related to his work in the ‘Meena’ magazine or his writing.
According to a statement from the Center, the Taliban Ministry of Interior has not yet commented on Zawab’s release and trial details. The media watchdog said that “his long-term detention without proven charges is considered illegal and contrary to the country’s media laws.”
The centre has urged the Taliban to “respect the law and allow media and their affiliates to exercise their legal and human rights within the framework of the law in reflecting on and criticizing the performance of the authorities.”
Since regaining control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have repeatedly detained, tortured, and imprisoned journalists and media workers.
On January 22, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Taliban to cease the detention of journalists for their work, in response to the arrest of Ehsan Akbari, a reporter for a Japanese media outlet in Kabul.
The Taliban summoned Ehsan Akbari, a journalist for Japan’s Kyodo News on January 17, 2024, to their media centre and subsequently detained him.
Sources informed the CPJ that Taliban intelligence coerced Akbari into contacting his family to instruct them to hand over his mobile phone to the regime’s agents waiting at his home.
The Taliban intelligence members then raided the Kyodo office in Kabul, seizing security cameras, filming equipment, laptops, a satellite phone, and documents.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, confirmed Akbari’s detention and the confiscation of his work equipment. He told the CPJ that the journalist was arrested for “being in contact with anti-government circles and transferring information to them.”
Ehsan Akbari was released after 9 days in detention on January 26, 2024.
