The children of an elderly British couple imprisoned in Afghanistan have made an urgent public plea to the ruling Taliban government to release them before they “die in custody”.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were arrested by the Taliban on 1 February when they were returning to their home in Bamyan province in central Afghanistan.
They have spent five and a half months in detention without being charged and were held separately in a maximum-security prison until eight weeks ago.
In a statement on Monday, UN human rights experts said the Reynolds couple was “at risk of irreparable harm or even death” without access to adequate medical care.
The British couple was living in Afghanistan for the past 18 years, running education and training projects and decided to remain in the country even after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
The four children, who live in the US and UK, have raised grave concerns about the health of their parents who suffer from a number of ailments.
They said: “This is another urgent plea to the Taliban to release our parents before it is too late, and they die in their custody.
“They have dedicated their lives to the people of Afghanistan for the last 18 years.”
The siblings said they had written privately to the Taliban leadership twice, hoping that it would encourage the group to release their parents as they held off from making a public appeal during the last two months.
Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, said there has been no progress in their efforts to have their parents released from detention.
Ms Entwistle said they had privately pleaded with the Taliban “to uphold their beliefs of compassion, mercy, fairness and human dignity”, adding: “We do so again now publicly.”
“For the past two months, we have maintained a media blackout, hoping to demonstrate our intention to show respect to the Taliban, and ‘trust the process’.
“We are grateful to Doughty Street Chambers for liaising with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.”
The last contact the children had with their parents was five weeks ago when their mother said their father’s health was rapidly deteriorating.
A remote medical assessment conducted by a cardiologist revealed that Mr Reynolds may have suffered a stroke or a silent heart attack, the siblings said.
They added that Mr Reynolds was suffering from a red, peeling, bleeding face, which could mean his skin cancer has relapsed.
Their mother’s condition was also getting worse as she continued to struggle with numbness in her feet due to anaemia, possibly from insufficient food in the maximum security prison, her children said.
A medical assessment of Ms Reynolds noted that this created additional strain which could lead to heart failure.
The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, marked their 55th wedding anniversary this week in detention.
They were held up until eight weeks ago at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in the capital, Kabul, their children said. There, the couple had access to phones and called their children every day from the prison yard.
They were then transferred to the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), with the promise of release within two to three days, they said. Two further months have passed, with no sign of release.
The children said their parents had better conditions at the GDI but still had no bed or furniture and slept on a mattress on the floor.
“Peter and Barbie Reynolds have been held for over five months, including in a maximum-security facility for several months and later in underground cells, without sunlight, before being moved to above-ground cells last week at the General Directorate of Intelligence in Kabul. Their physical and mental health is deteriorating rapidly,” five experts, who are part of a UN panel, said.
The UN experts said they saw “no reason why this older couple should be detained at all, and have requested an immediate review of the grounds of their detention”.
“It is inhumane to keep them locked up in such degrading conditions and more worrying when their health is so fragile.”
“We remind the Taliban that all persons deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity and dignity, and that conditions and locations of detention must take into account their age and health circumstances,” they said.
“The psychological toll on their health from not knowing why they are being held or when they are to be released is cruel treatment.”
Officials from the UK Foreign Office were granted an exceptional visit to the couple last Thursday to check on their welfare, according to The Times.
A spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan.”
