Australia opposes the release of an Afghan soldier, jailed for killing three of its military personnel in 2012, as part of a prisoner transfer deal to help usher in peace talks in the war-torn country, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Friday.
As per Reuters report, six prisoners sought by the Taliban left Kabul on a flight to Doha on Thursday evening, two government sources told Reuters, with the Taliban confirming it would attend long-awaited peace talks.
Payne said one of the six was Hekmatullah, a former Afghan army sergeant who killed three Australian solders in 2012. She said Canberra did not support the prisoner transfer.
“Hekmatullah should serve a full custodial sentence for the crimes for which he was convicted by an Afghan court, and he should not be released as part of a prisoner amnesty,” Payne said in an emailed statement.
