Freya Chappell and
Maia Davies
An American woman detained by the Taliban alongside a British couple has told the they are “literally dying” in prison and that “time is running out”.
Faye Hall was arrested with Peter, 80, and Barbie Reynolds, 76 on 1 February when returning to Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan, where the couple lived.
While Ms Hall was released after two months, Peter and Barbie remain in prison and still do not know why they are being held.
The Foreign Office (FCDO) said it was supporting the family of a couple being held in Afghanistan.
Speaking to Breakfast in her first interview since being released, Ms Hall broke down in tears when asked what she would like to tell the couple.
“I love them, I know they will be out very soon, don’t ever give up.”
Mr and Mrs Reynolds married in Kabul in 1970 and had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years prior to their arrest – the reason for which has not been confirmed despite four court appearances.
The pair had Afghan citizenship and ran a charity programme in the country, approved by the Taliban when they took power in 2021.
Ms Hall said the group, which also included an interpreter, had flown from Kabul to Bamiyan Province in a privately chartered plane when they were stopped at a check point.
They then spent days on the road being driven between police stations and prisons.
She described the conditions in which they had been held, including cramped cells and a maximum security prison holding “murderers”, fenced with barbed wire and where guards carried machine guns.
She warned that their health had rapidly deteriorated in prison, with Barbie losing significant weight and unable to stand or walk on one occasion.
She also cautioned that Peter had been getting sicker despite receiving medication from the Qatari government, which he required daily after undergoing heart surgery and cancer treatment.
“We just have these elderly people, they’re literally dying, and time is running out.”
She stressed that the conditions were taking a mental toll as well as physical, because “every day you do not know where you’ll be tomorrow”.
“It’s not a healthy environment and we were the only foreigners there,” she added.
The pair’s son previously told the he feared they would die in prison, cautioning that Peter had suffered serious convulsions and Barbie was “numb” from anaemia and malnutrition.
The UN warned in July that the couple could perish “in such degrading conditions” if they did not receive medical care at once, calling their detention “inhumane”.
Ms Hall called on the US and UK governments to “work together” and do more to secure the pair’s release.
The FCDO said: “We are supporting the family of two British Nationals who are detained in Afghanistan. The Minister has met the family to discuss the case.
The UK shut its embassy in Kabul and withdrew its diplomats from the country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The FCDO says support for British nationals in Afghanistan is therefore “severely limited” and advises against all travel to the country.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said the Taliban had a “history of unjustly detaining foreign nationals”.
“They should permanently end their practice of hostage diplomacy and release all those unjustly detained immediately.”
The Taliban’s foreign minister said in July that Barbie and Peter were “in constant contact with their families” and that efforts were under way to secure their release but that “these steps have not yet been completed”.
“Their human rights are being respected. They are being given full access to treatment, contact and accommodation.”
