LONDON: The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan must release imprisoned journalist Mortaza Behboudi, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), alongside 14 French news outlets and production companies, said on Monday.
Behboudi, who has been imprisoned in Kabul for a month, has dual French and Afghan citizenship. He was arrested and accused of espionage on Jan. 7 in the Afghan capital, two days after arriving in the country as part of a reporting assignment, RSF and French media said in a joint statement.
After month-long private attempts to secure his release, RSF and French media outlets made Behboudi’s case public, calling on Taliban authorities “to end this senseless situation.”
Behboudi, 28, began his career as a photojournalist aged 16 in Afghanistan, where he was born, according to the statement.
After facing threats in his home country, he arrived in Paris as a refugee aged 21, later working as a freelance journalist for numerous French media outlets.
Behboudi was awarded the Bayeux Prize for war correspondents in 2022 for a series of reports about life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
