Bashar Noorzai, a warlord and Taliban associate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for heroin smuggling and had served 17 years in a US jail. Mark Frerichs was working as a civil engineer on construction projects in Afghanistan when he was "taken hostage", Washington previously said. "If the IEA had not shown its strong determination, I would not have been here today," Noorzai told reporters at a press conference. Noorzai, a warlord and Taliban associate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for heroin smuggling and had served 17 years. While he held no official position, Noorzai had "provided strong support including weapons" for the Taliban in the 1990s, Afghanistan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Monday.

Source: Daily Nation September 19, 2022 11:03 UTC