Austrian activist launched after months held in Afghanistan

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DOHA: An Austrian far-right activist who visited Afghanistan reportedly to show it was a secure nation was launched on Sunday after 9 months in detention there.Herbert Fritz, 84, who based on Austrian media has shut hyperlinks to the far-right activist scene, arrived within the Qatari capital Doha after being freed by Taliban authorities.Fritz was arrested in Could after defying Austria’s long-standing warning towards journey to Afghanistan, which in 2021 returned to the rule of the Taliban who imposed a strict interpretation of Islam.”I think it was bad luck but I want to visit again,” he advised reporters on arrival in Doha, when requested about his ordeal.”There were some nice people but there were some foolish people also, I’m sorry,” Fritz added, describing his captors.Austrian authorities thanked Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf emirate, for aiding Fritz’s launch and mentioned he could obtain medical care in Doha earlier than flying house.The Taliban authorities’s inside and international ministries didn’t reply to a request for remark.In accordance with Austrian newspaper Der Customary, one in all Fritz’s passions was visiting “dangerous” locations, together with Afghanistan within the Nineteen Eighties and japanese Ukraine in recent times.Attempting to show that Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is secure, he travelled there final 12 months and printed an article titled “Vacations with the Taliban” through a far-right media outlet.He was arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of espionage, Der Customary mentioned. Such journey studies may need been a bid to painting Afghanistan as a secure nation to return Afghan refugees to, the newspaper added.Prior to now, based on Austrian media, Fritz has met Kurdish chief Abdullah Ocalan — presently jailed in Turkey. He additionally reportedly visited fighters of the Folks’s Safety Items (YPG), the primary element of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the de facto military of the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration in Syria’s northeast.Turkey views the YPG as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Staff’ Get together (PKK) — a bunch designated by Ankara and lots of of its Western allies as a terrorist organisation.

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