Elderly British couple who were detained by Taliban arrive in UK

An elderly British couple who were detained in a maximum security Taliban prison have arrived in the UK.

Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday.

The couple were detained by the Taliban's interior ministry on 1 February as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan.

They had been held without charge before being released from detention on Friday and flown to Qatar, where they were reunited with their daughter.

Richard Lindsay, the UK's special envoy to Afghanistan, previously told Sky News it was "unclear" on what grounds the couple had been detained.

The UK government advises British nationals not to travel to Afghanistan.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson at the Taliban government's foreign ministry, said in a statement posted on X that the couple "violated Afghan law" and were released from prison after a court hearing.

He did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.

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