KABUL, Afghanistan — A Taliban court has sentenced Mahdi Ansary, a local journalist, to one and a half years in prison, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) reported on Wednesday.
Ansary, a reporter for the Afghan News Agency (AFKA), disappeared in October 2024 after leaving his office in Kabul, according to the media watchdog. His family later learned he had been taken to the Shash Darak area, where he was held at Unit 40 of the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the AFJC said.
The AFJC condemned the court’s decision and called for Ansary’s “immediate” release, urging the Taliban to reconsider the verdict.
According to a source close to Ansary, his trial was held on Jan. 2. The AFJC said it had obtained a copy of the court’s decree, which stated that Ansary had been convicted of “propaganda against the Islamic Emirate.” His time in detention is expected to count toward his sentence.
Rahmatullah Karimi, the head of the Afghan News Agency, denied that Ansary’s arrest was connected to his work for the outlet.
The sentencing is the latest in a series of actions by the Taliban that have raised alarms over press freedoms in Afghanistan. On Sunday, Afghanistan Journalists in Exile, a group representing displaced media workers, led by Sediqullah Tawhidi, released a statement saying that at least 300 journalists and media workers have been detained since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
