KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Amnesty International has announced that Afghan filmmaker Sayed Rahim Saeedi has been released from Taliban custody after spending 11 months in prison.
In a statement on Sunday, the organization said Saeedi should never have been imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
Saeedi was the director and producer of a YouTube media content channel called Anar.
On July 14, 2024, he was arrested in Kabul by Taliban intelligence agents along with two colleagues—reporter Sayed Waris Saeedi and cameraman Hasib Sadat.
Waris Saeedi and Sadat were interrogated and released the following day. Their work with Anar also came to an end. However, Sayed Rahim Saeedi remained in Taliban custody.
On October 28, he was tried by a Taliban primary court in Kabul’s Zone 3 and sentenced to three years in prison. He had been held at Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul until his release.
