Senior Taliban figure arrives in Kabul after decades in U.S. detention – spokesperson

KABUL (Reuters) – A senior Taliban figure, Haji Bashir Noorzai, has been released after decades of detention by the United States and arrived in Kabul on Monday, a Taliban spokesperson said.

Afghan state media reports said he had been among the last Afghans held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

“Honorable Haji Bashir was released after two decades of imprisonment and arrived in Kabul today,” said Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesperson based in Doha, in a Tweet.

Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan tribal leader, was arrested in 2005 and charged with smuggling more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States.

Noorzai’s lawyer later denied his client was a drug dealer and argued the charges should be dismissed because U.S. government officials duped him into believing he would not be arrested.

(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)