Franco-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi, detained since January in Afghanistan, has been released after the charges against him were dropped, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday.
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“Taliban justice has ordered the release of journalist Mortaza Behboudi. The decision has just come after 284 days of imprisonment,” RSF declared in a statement sent to the AFP news agency.
All charges, including those of espionage and illegal support for foreigners, were dismissed in a hearing at the Kabul criminal court, according to the NGO defending press freedom.
The journalist was due to return to France at the end of the week.
Originally from Afghanistan, Behboudi, 29, took refuge in France and worked for several French media outlets, before returning to his home country on a journalistic mission on January 5.
He was detained two days later, while awaiting his press accreditation.
In July, a Taliban spokesman told France Télévision that he had been detained “not as a journalist… but because he had direct links with opponents of our regime.”
*With AFP; adapted from its English original
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