Melbourne
Timothy Weeks, the Australian academic released by the Taliban in November after being kept hostage for more than three years, said on Sunday that hope helped him survive the ordeal.
Weeks and US citizen Kevin King were freed by the Taliban in return for the release of three Taliban commanders. The two were kidnapped in August 2016 outside Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan where they worked. Speaking publicly for the first time since his release a visibly emotional Weeks said that the “long and tortuous ordeal” had a profound effect on him. “At times, I felt as if my death was imminent and that I would never return to see those that I loved again.
