Afghanistan Kidnapping
December 20, 2007
After a four-day search, the authorities in Herat said on Thursday, Dec. 20, that they believe they have found the men responsible for the abduction of 42-year-old Harald K. They say there is nothing to suggest the Taliban was behind the kidnapping.
Contrary to earlier reports, which suggested the man may have been seized by tribesmen who disagreed with his marriage to a local woman who already been promised to an Afghan man, police believe the abduction could be the result of a family dispute.
They say K., who goes under the name of Abdul R. since converting to Islam, was kidnapped while visiting his father-in-law in the town of Herat.
Spokesman for the Herat police, Nur Khan Nikzad, told the AFP news agency, that the authorities believe they know where K. is being held, but he gave no further details.
No Taliban involvement
In an interview with Germany's Osnabrucker Zeitung, the Afghan Trade and Industry Minister, Amin Farhang, said that all four men now in police custody were relatives of the German's Afghan wife.
The minister also ruled out any Taliban involvement, even though the group has recently been responsible for the abduction of several foreigners in Afghanistan.
"We firmly believe that the Taliban have nothing to do with the case," Farhang said in the newspaper's Thursday edition. "We hope that we will have [him] free again in two or three days."
The German foreign ministry declined to comment on the case.
K. arrived in Afghanistan in 2003 as an aid worker for the German organization, The Green Helmets. He has since married an Afghan woman with whom he now has a child.
On Tuesday, a German prosecutor said a warrant had been issued for his arrest following allegations of computer fraud back home.