The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
https://nypost.com/2020/10/28/terrorist-arrested-for-2008-abduction-of-us-reporter-in-afghanistan/
Terrorist arrested for 2008 abduction of former NYT journalist in Afghanistan
By Rebecca Rosenberg
October 28, 2020 | 4:19pm
David Rohde at Boston's Logan Airport in 1995. AP
A Taliban terrorist accused of abducting an American journalist in Afghanistan and holding him hostage for more than seven months was busted by federal authorities this week — 12 years after the incident.
Afghan national Haji Najibullah, 42, was arrested in Ukraine and flown back to the US on Tuesday.
He is in custody awaiting his initial presentment in Manhattan federal court on six counts related to the kidnapping of then-New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan nationals.
“The prosecution of Haji Najibullah shows that law enforcement will never stop in our mission to hold accountable those who commit violent crimes against American citizens,” said Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement.
On Nov. 10, 2008, Najibullah and his co-conspirators allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint Rohde, who had been in Kabul researching a book, along with his interpreter Asadullah Mangal and local reporter Tahir Ludin.
The trio were ordered to hike across the border to Pakistan where they were held hostage through the winter. They were forced to make at least three videos in which they begged for help while flanked by masked guards armed with machine guns, according to prosecutors.
In one video, Rohde begged for his life while a guard pointed the weapon at his face, officials said.
The abductors allegedly demanded a multimillion-dollar ransom from Rohde’s family — along with the release of Taliban prisoners — in exchange for freeing the hostages, the criminal complaint states.
Rohde and Ludin escaped by “just walking over the wall of the compound,” Rohde’s wife Kristen Mulvihill said at the time.
The pair made their way to a Pakistani army base and returned home.
see also
Afghanistan claims killing an al Qaeda leader wanted by FBI
The kidnapping was barely covered by the news out of fear publicity could endanger the hostages’ lives, a New York Times spokeswoman said after Rohde’s daring escape.
Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is now the online news director for The New Yorker.
Najibullah is charged with hostage-taking, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and two counts of using and possessing a machine gun in furtherance of crimes of violence, according to the federal complaint.
If convicted, each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Terrorist arrested for 2008 abduction of former NYT journalist in Afghanistan
By Rebecca Rosenberg
October 28, 2020 | 4:19pm
David Rohde at Boston's Logan Airport in 1995. AP
A Taliban terrorist accused of abducting an American journalist in Afghanistan and holding him hostage for more than seven months was busted by federal authorities this week — 12 years after the incident.
Afghan national Haji Najibullah, 42, was arrested in Ukraine and flown back to the US on Tuesday.
He is in custody awaiting his initial presentment in Manhattan federal court on six counts related to the kidnapping of then-New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan nationals.
“The prosecution of Haji Najibullah shows that law enforcement will never stop in our mission to hold accountable those who commit violent crimes against American citizens,” said Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement.
On Nov. 10, 2008, Najibullah and his co-conspirators allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint Rohde, who had been in Kabul researching a book, along with his interpreter Asadullah Mangal and local reporter Tahir Ludin.
The trio were ordered to hike across the border to Pakistan where they were held hostage through the winter. They were forced to make at least three videos in which they begged for help while flanked by masked guards armed with machine guns, according to prosecutors.
In one video, Rohde begged for his life while a guard pointed the weapon at his face, officials said.
The abductors allegedly demanded a multimillion-dollar ransom from Rohde’s family — along with the release of Taliban prisoners — in exchange for freeing the hostages, the criminal complaint states.
Rohde and Ludin escaped by “just walking over the wall of the compound,” Rohde’s wife Kristen Mulvihill said at the time.
The pair made their way to a Pakistani army base and returned home.
see also
Afghanistan claims killing an al Qaeda leader wanted by FBI
The kidnapping was barely covered by the news out of fear publicity could endanger the hostages’ lives, a New York Times spokeswoman said after Rohde’s daring escape.
Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is now the online news director for The New Yorker.
Najibullah is charged with hostage-taking, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and two counts of using and possessing a machine gun in furtherance of crimes of violence, according to the federal complaint.
If convicted, each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.