Behboudi described how he was arrested outside Kabul university on 7 January while interviewing women who are banned from studying. He was accused of spying and providing funding to the Afghan resistance. He was repeatedly interrogated during the months he was held by the Afghan intelligence agency. The conditions in which he was detained were extremely challenging, especially at Shash-Darak security prison in Kabul, where 1,200 political prisoners are held.
“I felt as though I’d been kidnapped,” Behboudi said. “There was no trial, nothing, no future. We were held in two or three-metre rooms, with 11 or 12 people in each one. Sometimes mixed with Islamic State members. I was harassed all the time. They used to hit me.”
At the end of July, Behboudi was finally transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi prison, where non-political prisoners are held. Judicial proceedings then began before a Kabul criminal court. To ensure his defence, RSF managed to engage two Afghan lawyers. On 18 October, the judges finally decided to release him. The international campaign waged by RSF and RSF’s communications with the Afghan authorities had borne fruit.
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