A local journalist who was jailed by the Taliban for three months over his reporting on social and economic issues has been released from a prison in Ghazni Province, according to a media watchdog.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center said Sulaiman Rahil, director of Khushhal Radio in Ghazni, had been freed after serving a sentence handed down by a Taliban court. The group welcomed his release but condemned his arrest and trial as a violation of his fundamental rights.
Rahil was detained on May 4 by Taliban intelligence officers in Ghazni after posting commentary on Facebook that highlighted worsening poverty and other hardships faced by residents, the watchdog said. On June 21, a provincial court convicted him in a closed session of “propaganda against the Taliban” and sentenced him to three months in prison.
The group noted that this was not the first case involving Khushhal Radio. In October last year, the station’s former director, Hikmat Aryan, was sentenced to one month in prison for publishing a report about Taliban military operations before they seized power in 2021.
“With the detention and deprivation of Sulaiman Rahil from freedom over the past three months, his basic professional and human rights have been seriously violated,” the center said in a statement. It called on the Taliban to release other detained journalists and to allow media workers to operate “freely, without fear or pressure.”
At least 10 journalists and media staff are currently detained or serving prison sentences in Afghanistan, according to data collected by the Afghanistan Journalists Center.
