The U.S. Justice Department announced on Monday a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location and safe return of Mahmood Shah Habibi, a dual U.S.-Afghan citizen and former director of Afghanistan’s civil aviation authority, who disappeared in Kabul nearly three years ago.
“Habibi, Afghanistan’s former director of civil aviation, was taken from his vehicle near his home in Kabul City, Afghanistan and detained by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence, along with his driver and 29 other employees of Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company,” the statement said.
While all but two of the detainees—Habibi and one other individual—were released shortly thereafter, Habibi has vanished with no trace since his initial arrest, the stateemnt said.
“Habibi has not been heard from since his initial arrest, and the so-called Taliban government has yet to provide any information regarding his whereabouts or condition,” the statement said.
The Justice Department’s announcement falls under its “Rewards for Justice” program, which has previously yielded critical intelligence in international criminal and terrorism cases.
Habibi, a civil aviation expert working in Kabul for Asia Consultancy Group (ACG), was arrested by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) on August 10, 2022, along with 30 other people working for the same company. The arrests occurred shortly after the July 31, 2022, US strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul and may have been the result of Taliban suspicions that ACG was involved in the attack.
“My brother is an innocent individual who was only working to help the people of Afghanistan survive by ensuring the airport remained functioning. He had nothing to do with the strike on Zawahiri. The Taliban have been saying they do not have him, but that does not explain the fact there are numerous witnesses and technical evidence showing that they arrested him and held him at GDI headquarters,” Habibi’s brother, Ahmad Habibi, said.
He added: “We know that there are good people in Afghanistan who know where my brother is being held and we hope the reward will encourage someone to share that information. The Taliban needs to understand that normalization with the US will not move forward until my brother is released and this reward makes that clear.”
Eric Lebson, the Chief Strategy Officer of the nonprofit Global Reach and a former National Security Council official who worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan issues, said that in more than 1,000 days in Taliban custody, Mr. Habibi has never been allowed to speak with his wife or young daughter.
“At various times, the Taliban have alternately advised various US officials that they do not have him, have never heard of him, looked for him and did not find him, and that they think must be dead, but they have never owned up to the fact that his arrest was witnessed by multiple people, including some who were held at GDI headquarters with Mr. Habibi and were subsequently released,” Lebson said.
He added that If the Taliban wants to normalize relations with the US, they need to move beyond hostage diplomacy and return Mahmood to his family.
“Refusing to admit they are holding him – something we already know – is only hurting the people of Afghanistan. Now is the time for the Taliban to admit they have Mahmood Habibi and work out a solution that will bring him home to his family,” Lebson said.
