The exchange is one of the most significant prisoner swaps to take place under the Biden administration.
A Taliban fighter keeps vigil near the Intercontinental Hotel during a press event organised by the members of the Taliban, in Kabul on September 19, 2022. An American navy veteran detained in Afghanistan for more than two years was released by the TAn American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released in exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the United States, according to the man's family and U.S. officials.
President Joe Biden, who is in the United Kingdom to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, called Frerichs’s family Monday morning to share the "good news" that his administration was able to secure his release, according to a senior administration official. In Afghanistan, Noorzai, who was arrested in 2005 on federal heroin trafficking charges in the U.S., told reporters at a press conference that he had been released from an unspecified U.S. prison and handed over earlier in the day to the Taliban in Kabul as part of the swap. Frerichs's family and U.S. officials subsequently confirmed that Frerichs was the American who was part of the deal.
Eric Lebson, a former U.S. government national security official who had been advising Frerichs' family, said in a statement that "everything about this case has been an uphill fight." He criticized the Trump administration for having given away "our leverage to get Mark home quickly by signing a peace accord with the Taliban without ever having asked them to return Mark first.
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