Vienna says its citizen arrived in Doha after mediation by the Qatari government helped secure his release.
The Taliban have freed Herbert Fritz, an 84-year-old Austrian far-right nationalist, who was detained in Afghanistan last May.
The Austrian government said in a statement on Sunday that Fritz arrived in Doha, Qatar, earlier in the day after mediation by the Qatari government helped secure his release.
Fritz was arrested last year after defying Austria's long-standing warning against travel to Afghanistan, which in 2021 returned to Taliban rule.
“I think it was bad luck, but I want to visit again,” he told reporters upon his arrival in Doha, when asked about his ordeal.
“There were nice people but also stupid people, I'm sorry,” Fritz added, describing his captors.
After his arrest, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that Fritz had traveled to Afghanistan and reported positively on life there. He published an article titled “Vacation with the Taliban” through a far-right media outlet.
This helped fuel anti-immigration arguments that Afghanistan was a safe country to which refugees could return, the newspaper said.
The Taliban arrested him on suspicion of espionage and Austrian neo-Nazis made his case public through Telegram channels, Der Standard said.
Austria's Foreign Ministry said it had been working to secure Fritz's release since May and thanked Qatar and the European Union representation in Kabul for assisting its efforts to secure his return to Austria.
An Austrian ministry spokesman told the Associated Press news agency that Fritz had been held in a Kabul prison.
Writing in
“Only thanks to our trusted collaboration will this Austrian citizen be able to return home to his daughter and grandchildren,” Nehammer said.
Fritz was a founding member of the country's National Democratic Party (NDP), a far-right group banned in 1988, according to Der Standard and other media outlets.
Austria's far-right Freedom Party, which leads opinion polls ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year, had pushed for Fritz to be released. The party has said it was researching a book on Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar expressed its gratitude in X to the “interim government of Afghanistan” for the release of the Austrian.
“The State of Qatar has demonstrated, regionally and globally, that it is a reliable international partner on several important issues,” the ministry said. “It spares no effort to harness its energy and capabilities in the areas of mediation, preventive diplomacy and dispute resolution by peaceful means.”
