2023-10-23 19:47:46
Mortaza Behboudi has a dark face. He no longer has the youthful look we knew him to have. He walks with difficulty, a visible sign of after-effects due to mistreatment in prison. After 284 days of detention in Kabul, in the hands of the Taliban, a court ordered his release on Wednesday October 18, allowing him to return to France two days later at dawn. A return that he wanted to be very discreet, without a large welcoming committee.
« It was believed that liberation would come sooner and on several occasions », confided the boss of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, this Monday, October 23, at the association’s headquarters in Paris. “The mobilization was extraordinary, with 15 editorial staff working with Mortaza.» Discreet work at first, for a month, without any media coverage. Then a very strong mobilization once his arrest was made public, in Paris and throughout France, particularly in Douarnenez, Mortaza’s adopted city. The whole city mobilized.
“A dozen in small cells”
Originally from Afghanistan but a refugee in France where he acquired French nationality, Mortaza Behboudi went to his native country on January 5 for a report. On January 7, in front of the capital’s university, he spoke with students who were prevented from completing their thesis. Suddenly arises « a young Taliban, who questions me and takes me to the Kabul police station »says the journalist who has collaborated with numerous media (France Télévisions, Radio France, Mediapart, Release et The cross). The interrogation begins a few hours later. Mortaza finds it difficult to continue his story. « I saw Daesh members arrested and tortured in front of me. »
A few days later he was transferred to the Taliban intelligence service prison in Kabul where around a thousand people were detained. «There were a dozen of us in small cells.» The journalist is hit there. «I didn’t have the time. I didn’t see the day. I lost all sense of time.»«They wanted me to admit to being a spy for France, supporting the resistance. I was told that the French state, the French parliament and even Bernard-Henri Lévy were giving me money to support the resistance. » He stops speaking again, overcome by emotion.
After twenty days «difficult» interrogations, the Taliban blurted out: «We can’t do anything with you because you are all over the media.» He was transferred at the end of July, with other personalities and activists, to Kabul general prison. There too ” soldiers would come up to me and say: “Are you the asshole on TV?” “. “The media saved meassured Mortaza. I couldn’t imagine staying alive. »
“Negative reporting on Afghanistan”
In this prison, Mortaza finally has access to a telephone, can speak with his wife, and with the lawyer mandated by RSF. Several hearings were held on his case, during which the accusations of espionage and support for the resistance were maintained. During the fifth hearing, « the judge even recognizes that I should not have been arrested by the young Taliban, because I had all the documents required to work, including my Afghan press card”. He is then accused of having done « negative reporting on Afghanistan ». He is forced to sign an agreement to gain his freedom: «I need to validate my reports before publication.»
On Wednesday October 18, around 6 p.m., he was finally free, acquitted of all charges against him. The EU ambassador is there to receive him.
At the end of the press conference, this Monday, October 23, Christophe Deloire paints a grim picture of the media situation in Afghanistan. The country’s largest private channel is censored. Any publication must be validated in advance. And all foreign media are under surveillance. It’s even impossible to take a photo in the street, even if only with a cell phone.
Today, 4,800 journalists remain active in Afghanistan out of the 12,000 in the country before the Taliban took power. Many went into exile. At least 80% of female journalists have been forced to leave their jobs. And those who are still working are forbidden from asking men questions. «I will go back, it’s my country. We must give the Afghans a voice»cried Mortaza.
#didnt #imagine #staying #alive