Elderly Brit couple jailed by Taliban for 8 months tell of horror with husband chained to man who killed own wife & kids
A BRITISH grandad has revealed how he was shackled to a wife-and-child killer during his horror months locked up by the Taliban.
Peter Reynolds and his wife Barbie, 76, were arrested in February and dragged through ten different jails in Afghanistan, sometimes held in cages and sometimes split apart, with weeks spent in solitary confinement.
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Peter, who spent his 80th birthday behind bars instead of celebrating with his family in the US, told The Sunday Times: “We felt huge powerlessness.
“We were told we were guests. But when I was taken to court, I had my ankles and hands cuffed together with murderers and rapists.”
At one point, the grandfather found himself shackled to a man who had murdered his own wife and three children.
Peter and Barbie were finally freed this week, flown out on a Qatari aircraft and back to Heathrow on Saturday, where they reunited with their family after months of agony.
The couple’s release came after months of behind-the-scenes mediation led by Qatar, whose diplomats in Kabul arranged medication, doctors and calls with their family.
Footage showed the pair smiling as they finally boarded a flight out of Afghanistan.
They had lived in Afghanistan since 2007, running a community project called Rebuild.
They were among the few foreigners who chose to remain after the Taliban seized back power four years ago, settling in the mountainous Bamiyan region — better known for the giant Buddhas destroyed by the regime in 2001.
The couple, who first married in Kabul in 1970, insisted they had lived peacefully for years without trouble from the authorities.
Barbie described watching her husband struggle into a police truck with his hands and ankles chained as the “worst moment.”
The pair endured months of solitary confinement, a basement cell with no windows, and illness from “oily and salty” prison food.
Meals were scarce and left them sick. Barbie, who suffers from anaemia, grew weaker by the day.
Peter, who has a heart condition, often went without the beta blockers he relies on after a mini-stroke last year.
He is believed to have suffered a silent heart attack while in custody.
At one stage they were transferred to the Taliban’s intelligence HQ and locked in an underground cell, cut off from sunlight and phones.
UN human rights experts later warned their health was deteriorating so rapidly that they were at risk of “irreparable harm or even death.”
The couple insist they had done nothing wrong.
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The Taliban later claimed they had “violated Afghan laws” but gave no details.
And a search of their home and staff turned up nothing.
They were originally detained alongside their American friend Faye Hall, who was freed in March after a court order.
But the Reynoldses remained locked up for another five months with no explanation.
At one point, relatives back in Britain said they were “pretty frustrated” after repeated pleas to Taliban officials went ignored.
Back in Britain, the couple are exhausted but jubilant.
Barbie wants salad and Marmite, while Peter wants baked beans.
But most of all, they want time with the grandchildren they feared they’d never hug again.
“It is a mystery how or why we have been released,” said Peter.
“There’s a lot to process. I’m looking forward to listening to our family’s narrative of all that has unfolded in the last eight months.”
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