Vienna says its nationwide has arrived in Doha after mediation by the Qatari authorities helped safe his launch.
The Taliban has launched Herbert Fritz, an 84-year-old Austrian far-right nationalist, who was arrested in Afghanistan final Could.
The Austrian authorities mentioned in an announcement on Sunday that Fritz arrived in Doha, Qatar earlier within the day after mediation by the Qatari authorities helped to safe his launch.
Fritz was arrested final yr after defying Austria’s long-standing warning in opposition to journey to Afghanistan, which in 2021 returned to the rule of the Taliban.
“I feel it was dangerous luck however I need to go to once more,” he advised reporters on arrival in Doha, when requested about his ordeal.
“There have been some good folks however there have been some silly folks additionally, I’m sorry,” Fritz added, describing his captors.
After his arrest, Austria’s Der Commonplace newspaper mentioned Fritz had gone to Afghanistan and reported positively on life there. He printed an article titled “Holidays with the Taliban” by way of a far-right media outlet.
This helped gasoline anti-immigration arguments that Afghanistan was a protected nation to which refugees might return, the newspaper mentioned.
The Taliban arrested him on suspicion of spying, and Austrian neo-Nazis made his case public by way of Telegram channels, Der Commonplace mentioned.
Austria’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned it had been working to safe Fritz’s launch since Could, and thanked Qatar and the European Union illustration in Kabul for aiding its efforts to result in his return to Austria.
A spokesperson for the Austrian ministry advised the Related Press information company that Fritz had been held in a jail in Kabul.
Writing on X, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer thanked the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his staff for his or her “robust help in releasing one in every of our residents from jail in Afghanistan”.
“It is just because of our trusted collaboration that this Austrian citizen will be capable of return house to his daughter and grandchildren,” Nehammer mentioned.
Fritz was a founding member of the nation’s Nationwide Democratic Social gathering (NDP), an excessive proper group banned in 1988, in response to Der Commonplace and different media shops.
Austria’s far-right Freedom Social gathering, which has been main in opinion polls forward of parliamentary elections due later this yr, had pressed for Fritz’s launch. The occasion has mentioned he was researching a ebook in Afghanistan.
Qatar’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs expressed gratitude on X for the “caretaker authorities in Afghanistan” for releasing the Austrian.
“The State of Qatar has confirmed, regionally and globally, that it’s a trusted worldwide accomplice in varied vital points,” the ministry mentioned. “It spares no effort in harnessing its vitality and skill within the areas of mediation, preventive diplomacy, and settling disputes by way of peaceable means.”
