An Austrian national, a far-right extremist, who went to Afghanistan in 2023 to prove that the Southeast Asian country is safe and therefore refugees can be readmitted to it, was released yesterday Sunday, after nine months in prison by the de facto authorities of Taliban.

Herbert Fritz, 84, a former teacher, active neo-Nazi who describes himself as an “Afghanistan expert”, according to the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, arrived in Qatar after being freed by the Taliban.

He was arrested in May on suspicion of espionage, according to the same Austrian media, after, defying Vienna’s warnings against any travel to Afghanistan, a country which since August 2021 is again under the yoke of the Taliban, the regime of which is not recognized by any government in the world, he went there.

“I think it was bad luck, but I want to go again,” he told reporters after arriving in Doha, when asked about his imprisonment. “There were kind people but also some idiots, I’m sorry,” he added, referring to his jailers.

The Austrian authorities thanked Qatar and the European Union for their mediation, which contributed to the release of Mr. Fritz. They also said he may receive some medical care in Doha before taking the plane back to Austria.

Qatar expressed gratitude to the de facto government of Afghanistan for its cooperation and the release of the Austrian, without naming him.

The Taliban’s interior and foreign ministries did not respond when asked for comment.

According to Standard, one of Mr. Fritz’s “occupations” is going to “dangerous” places, notably Afghanistan in the 1980s, or eastern Ukraine in recent years.

In his attempt to prove that Afghanistan is safe, he went there and published an article under the title “Holiday with the Taliban” in a far-right media outlet.

The travel article was intended to legitimize the deportation of refugees or asylum seekers from Afghanistan to their country of origin, the Standard explained.

He was arrested immediately after the article was published.

According to Austrian media, Mr. Fritz has previously met with the historic leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested 25 years ago and remains imprisoned in Turkey.

He had also traveled to Syria to meet with fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has allied with the US and established a Kurdish autonomous administration in the areas they control, in northern and eastern sectors of Syrian territory.

Turkey characterizes the YPG as the Syrian arm of the PKK, a separatist organization labeled “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies.

Mr Fritz was a 1967 founding member of the far-right National Democratic Party (NDP), which was outlawed in 1988, according to media reports. The far-right Freedom Party, which is leading the polls ahead of elections later this year, has been pressing the government to act to release him.