An American woman who was detained by the Taliban and later released said on Friday that a British couple arrested with her are "literally dying" in prison and that "time is running out" for them.
Faye Hall, who was arrested on Feb. 1 while returning to Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan, gave her first broadcast interview since her release to BBC Breakfast, saying Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie Reynolds, 76, remained in detention despite four court appearances and no confirmed reason for their arrest. The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and held Afghan citizenship while running a charity programme the Taliban had approved after taking power in 2021.
Hall said she had been detained with the Reynoldses and an interpreter after the group flew from Kabul to Bamiyan on a privately chartered plane and was stopped at a checkpoint. She described being shuttled for days between police stations and prisons and said the conditions were dire: cramped cells, a maximum-security facility holding convicted murderers, fencing topped with barbed wire, and guards armed with machine guns.
Hall said the couple's physical condition had worsened rapidly in detention. She told the BBC that Barbie Reynolds had lost significant weight and was once unable to stand or walk, and that Peter Reynolds had been getting sicker despite receiving medication supplied by the Qatari government, which he needs daily after heart surgery and cancer treatment. "We just have these elderly people, they're literally dying, and time is running out," Hall said, urging the United States and the United Kingdom to "work together" to secure their release.
The couple's son has previously expressed fear that his parents could die in custody, saying Peter had suffered serious convulsions and Barbie was suffering from anaemia and malnutrition. In July the United Nations warned that the pair could perish "in such degrading conditions" if they did not receive urgent medical care, calling their detention "inhumane." The reason for their detention has not been publicly confirmed.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said it was supporting the family of the two British nationals and that a minister had met the family to discuss the case. The FCDO noted that the United Kingdom closed its embassy in Kabul and withdrew its diplomats after the Taliban's return to power in 2021, and said support for British nationals in Afghanistan is therefore "severely limited." The FCDO continues to advise against all travel to the country.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the Taliban have a "history of unjustly detaining foreign nationals" and urged the movement to end what the spokesperson characterised as "hostage diplomacy," calling for the immediate release of all those unjustly detained. The Taliban's foreign minister said in July that Peter and Barbie Reynolds were "in constant contact with their families," that efforts were under way to secure their release, and that "their human rights are being respected. They are being given full access to treatment, contact and accommodation." The foreign minister added, however, that such steps had not yet been completed.
Hall described the mental toll of detention as well as the physical: uncertainty about where detainees will be held from day to day and the stress of being among prisoners convicted of violent crimes. Since her release after about two months, she has publicly appealed for diplomatic pressure to be increased on the Taliban to allow medical care and to free the British couple. Authorities on all sides have not provided detailed public explanations of the charges or legal process behind the Reynoldses' detention.
The case highlights the limitations faced by Western governments in assisting nationals held in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021, and adds to international concern about the treatment of foreign and dual nationals in Taliban custody. Humanitarian groups and the family have called for urgent, coordinated diplomatic action to secure the pair's release and ensure they receive necessary medical treatment.