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Herbert F. in Doha
Photo: Karim Jaafar / AFP
An Austrian right-wing extremist has been released after nine months in detention in Afghanistan.
84-year-old Herbert F. arrived in Qatar's capital Doha on Sunday after his release by the Islamist Taliban.
He was arrested in May 2023 on suspicion of espionage after traveling to Afghanistan despite a travel warning from the Austrian government that had been in place for decades.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) thanked the Qatari government for its mediation in the matter on the X platform, formerly Twitter.
The Foreign Ministry emphasized that the 84-year-old had received “as best as possible consular support” in recent months via the Foreign Office, the responsible embassy in Pakistan and the EU representation in Kabul.
This meant that urgently needed medication and a hearing aid were given to him.
When he arrived in Doha, when asked by journalists about his arrest in Afghanistan, F. said he had been "unlucky" but wanted to return there.
Self-proclaimed Afghanistan expert
According to the Austrian daily newspaper “Der Standard”, F. is a former teacher and well-known right-wing extremist.
In 1967 he was a founding member of the National Democratic Party (NDP), which was banned in 1988.
The Austrian Resistance Documentation Archive, which monitors right-wing extremist activities, describes F. as an active participant in right-wing extremist political circles.
In right-wing extremist online networks, F. describes himself as an “Afghanistan expert” who has already visited the country several times.
With his trip to Afghanistan he wanted to demonstrate that it was a safe country and that refugees could therefore be sent back there.
According to the "Standard", a right-wing extremist magazine published an article by F. entitled "Holiday with the Taliban" shortly before his arrest, in which he positively portrayed life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
Austrian neo-Nazis made his case public via Telegram channels.
czl/AP/AFP/Reuters