Islamabad, Pakistan — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime saw two Americans freed in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. In a statement, the family of Ryan Corbett, an American man held by the Taliban since the summer of 2022, said he was released as part of the deal.
The Taliban-run Afghan Foreign Ministry announced the swap, saying two U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2008 in the U.S. The Taliban did not identify the Americans being released in the deal.
Corbett, who lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the U.S.-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip.
Courtesy Corbett family
The deal, the terms of which were not immediately confirmed by U.S. officials, came as former President Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, handed power over to returning President Trump. Members of Corbett’s family were on stage Monday with Mr. Trump during his Inaugural Parade at Washington’s Capital One Arena, along with family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Corbett was considered by the U.S. government to have been wrongfully detained by the Taliban, and talks were underway in the final days of the Biden administration for a trade but had fallen through.
The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan, but that likely remains a tall order as most countries in the world still don’t recognize the militants’ rule.
“Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the Corbett family said in their statement. They thanked both Mr. Trump and Biden, as well as many officials of both administrations, for their efforts in freeing him.
Corbett’s family also praised the Middle East nation of Qatar for its “vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.”
Energy-rich Qatar, which has hosted negotiations between the U.S. and Taliban over the years, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
A source close to Taliban Interior Minister Sirajudding Haqqani told CBS News’ Ahmad Mukhtar that the second American released as part of the swap was William McKenty, the same name reported earlier by both CNN and The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials. The source told CBS News that the UAE and Qatar had played a role in the prisoner exchange. No other details have emerged about McKenty, or what he might have been doing in Afghanistan.
Mohammed, 55, was a prisoner in California after his 2008 conviction. The Bureau of Prisons early Tuesday listed Mohammed as not being in their custody.
Mohammed was detained on the battlefield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and later taken to the U.S. A federal jury convicted him on charges of securing heroin and opium that he knew were bound for the United States and, in doing so, assisting terrorism activity.
The Justice Department at the time referred to Mohammed as a “a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” who “sought to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets.” He was the first person to be convicted on U.S. narco-terrorism laws.
Before Biden left office, his administration had been trying to work out a deal to free Corbett as well as George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Last week, Biden spoke with relatives of the three Americans though there was no deal to get them back at that time, family members said.
Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country. Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, also went missing in 2022. The Taliban has denied that it has Habibi.
It wasn’t immediately clear if either of the two men was the other person said to have been released by the Taliban on Tuesday. Officials in Washington didn’t respond to requests for comment early Tuesday after Mr. Trump’s inauguration the day before.
“It was our hope that Ryan, George and Mahmoud would be returned to their families together, and we cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring them,” the Corbett family said. “We recognize the immense privilege of our family’s reunion today, and pledge to keep praying — and fighting — for George and Mahmoud’s swift release.”
The Taliban called the exchange the result of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the U.S. and said it was a good example of solving problems through dialogue.
“The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” it said.
The Taliban has been trying to make inroads in being recognized, in part to escape the economic tailspin caused by its takeover. Billions in international funds were frozen and tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans fled the country and took their money with them.