Taliban frees US man who was abducted while travelling in Afghanistan in 2022
George Glezmann is on his way back to the US to be reunited with his wife.
A US man who was abducted more than two years ago while travelling through Afghanistan as a tourist has been released by the Taliban in a deal with the Trump administration, the State Department said.
George Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, is the third American detainee to be released by the Taliban since January. He was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 and was designated by the US government as wrongfully detained the following year.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said Mr Glezmann was on his way back to the US to be reunited with his wife Aleksandra, and praised broker Qatar for “steadfast commitment and diplomatic efforts” which he said were “instrumental in securing George’s release”.
“George’s release is a positive and constructive step,” Mr Rubio said. “It is also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan. President Trump will continue his tireless work to free all Americans unjustly detained around the world.”
Mr Glezmann is being accompanied back to the US, through Qatar’s capital Doha, by Adam Boehler, who has been handling hostage issues for Donald Trump’s administration. The Taliban disclosed earlier on Thursday that Mr Boehler had met a delegation that included Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Mr Glezmann, 66, has visited more than 100 countries as part of his passion for exploring different cultures, according to a profile on the website of the Foley Foundation, an organisation that advocates for the release of Americans detained by foreign countries.
The release is part of what the Taliban has previously described as the “normalisation” of ties between the US and Afghanistan after the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021. Most countries still do not recognise the Taliban’s rule.
Mr Glezmann’s release follows a separate deal, arranged in January in the final days of the Biden administration and also mediated by the Qataris, that secured the releases of Ryan Corbett and William McKenty.
The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul said at the time that those two US citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008 after being convicted under US narco-terrorism laws for securing heroin and opium that he knew was bound for the US.
Unlike in that arrangement, the US did not give up any prisoner to secure Mr Glezmann’s release, which was done as a goodwill gesture, according to a source.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Mr Glezmann’s release on “humanitarian grounds”, saying the “Islamic Emirate again reaffirms its longstanding position that dialogue, understanding and diplomacy provide effective avenues for resolving all issues”.
But Mr Biden told families during a call in January that he would not support trading Rahim unless the Taliban released Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and vanished in 2022.
The FBI and Mr Habibi’s family have said they believe he was taken by Taliban forces, but the Taliban has denied holding him.
Representatives for Mr Habibi on Thursday cited what they said was “overwhelming evidence” that he was arrested by the Taliban after his home was searched by people identifying themselves as part of the Taliban’s security service.
“We are confident that the Trump administration will hold firm that my brother needs to be released for relations with the US to move forward,” one of Habibi’s brothers, Ahmad, said in a statement.
“We have reason to be confident Mahmood is alive and in Taliban custody, despite their hollow denials of holding him. My brother is an innocent man who has been held away from his wife, young daughter and elderly parents for 953 days.”
