LONDON: A British danger tourist has praised his Taliban captors after being released from eight months’ house arrest in Afghanistan, The Times reported.
Speaking on controversial influencer Andrew Tate’s podcast, Miles Routledge, 23, said he had traveled to Afghanistan five times since first being evacuated during the Kabul airlift in 2021 amid the Taliban takeover.
He was arrested by authorities in Kabul in February this year but was released earlier in October.
While living in the capital, Routledge, from Birmingham, said he had bought “Taliban merch” to resell in the West.
He was detained on suspicion of espionage by the Taliban and kept under house arrest, also admitting to a charge of traveling without a permit to another region in the country.
Routledge claimed that he had spent much of his time watching films with those overseeing his house arrest, including titles such as “Titanic” and “Rambo III.”
Both the 23-year-old and Tate, 36, who was indicted in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape, praised the Taliban on the podcast.
Tate said he “had a lot in common with the Talibros,” referring to Afghan “traditional family values” and a preference for large families.
Routledge said of Afghanistan: “Everyone is in their place and acting well, which is excellent to see.”
He claimed that after his release, he was flown to Dubai to meet with Foreign Office officials, who inquired about his well-being.
But the 23-year-old taunted the British authorities, telling them: “I’ll be back in Kabul in three weeks.”
He told Tate: “They had this horrified face, like ‘he’s not going to stop.’”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said at the time of the release, which also involved the freeing of three other British nationals, the government “regretted this episode.”
Routledge initially visited Afghanistan in 2021 while studying physics at Loughborough University in the UK because the “food seemed amazing and it was dirt cheap.”
After being evacuated on a military transport plane from Kabul airport, Routledge claimed he had “no regrets.”
