Lawyers for an American who is believed to have been captured by the Taliban for nearly two years are asking United Nations Human rights investigators have to intervene to report what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment.
Ryan Corbett was kidnapped on August 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family were living at the time of the fall of the US-backed government a year earlier. He arrived on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff as part of a business venture aimed at boosting Afghanistan’s private sector through consulting services and lending.
American is about to spend 600 days in Taliban captivity, wife appeals to Biden officials for help
Corbett has since been detained in several prisons, although his lawyers say he has not been seen by anyone other than the people with whom he was detained since last December.
In a petition sent Thursday, Corbett’s lawyers say he has been threatened with physical violence and torture and has been malnourished and denied medical care. Lawyers say he has been held in solitary confinement, including a basement cell, with almost no sunlight and exercise, and that his physical and mental health have deteriorated significantly.
This family photo shows Ryan Corbett holding rabbits with his daughter Miriam and son Caleb in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2020. Lawyers for Corbett, who is believed to have been held by the Taliban for nearly two years, are asking a UN human rights investigator to intervene. It is said that this is cruel and inhumane treatment. Corbett was kidnapped on August 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family were living on a 12-month business visa valid for payment and training at the time of the collapse of the US-based government a year earlier. Employee. (AP Photo/Anna Corbett)
Corbett has been able to speak to his family on the phone five times since his arrest, including last month. His family has not been able to see him – his only visits were two check-ins from a third-party state delegation – and characterizations of his mistreatment are based on accounts from recently released prisoners and his openly conflicted tone. In conversation.
The petition, signed by Corbett family attorneys Ryan Fahey and Kate Gibson, says, “During Mr. Corbett’s recent call with his wife and children, Mr. Corbett indicated that the mental torture and suffering he has endured has caused him to lose all hope. “
The petition is addressed to Alice Edwards, an independent human rights investigator and Special Rapporteur on torture at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations. This asked Edwards, who was appointed by the United Nations. United Nations Human Rights Council“Immediately reach out to the Taliban to secure Mr. Corbett’s immediate release and freedom from torture as guaranteed by international law.”
“This situation continues to drag on, and I am becoming more and more concerned and am taking steps that I hope will make a difference and help the situation – simply because of Ryan’s deteriorating health and physical and mental health I’m worried and nervous,” Corbett’s wife, Anna, said in an interview. “And that’s what was motivating me to take the next step.”
The US government is separately working to repatriate Corbett and has declared him wrongfully detained. A State Department spokesperson told reporters last month that officials had pressed consistently for Corbett’s release and were “making every effort to bring Ryan and other wrongfully detained Americans home from Afghanistan.” “
A spokesman for the interior ministry in Afghanistan said this week that he had no knowledge of Corbett’s case.
Corbett, of Dansville, New York, first visited Afghanistan in 2006 and relocated there with his family in 2010 to oversee several non-governmental organizations.
The family was forced to leave Afghanistan in August 2021 when Taliban captured Kabul, but he returned the following January so he could renew his business visa. Given the instability on the ground, the family discussed the trip and “we were all very nervous,” said Corbett’s wife.
But after that first uneventful trip, he returned to the country in August 2022 to train and pay his staff and restart a business venture that included consulting services, microfinance lending and evaluating international development projects .
During a trip to northern Gazan province, Corbett and a Western colleague encountered armed members of the Taliban and were taken first to a police station and later to an underground prison.
Anna Corbett said she was “really scared” when she learned her husband had been taken to the police station but she hoped the situation would be resolved soon.
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However, that did not happen, and Anna Corbett, who has three teenage children and makes regular trips to Washington, said she is trying to advocate as forcefully as possible while “not letting the anxiety overwhelm me.”
“I think the uncertainty of it all is why it’s so hard because you don’t know what’s going to come your way — what call, what news,” he said. “And I’m worried about Ryan and the impact of the trauma on him, and then on my children, that they’re experiencing. I’ve tried to protect them as much as I can, but it’s very difficult.”
