Mortaza Behboudi, an Afghan-French journalist who was imprisoned by the Taliban for seven months, told France 2 that the Taliban "pulled out his teeth and tortured him with electric shocks and injected fluids into his body".
He said that he was tortured every day during the first three months of his imprisonment.
In an interview with France 2, Behboudi said that he had not seen the sky for seven months in the Taliban's intelligence prison. He said that the prisoners used to commit suicide in front of his eyes after being tortured by the Taliban.
Afghanistan International's findings show that 31 types of torture methods are inflicted on prisoners in the detention centres of the Taliban's intelligence directorates in Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan.
Behboudi had arrived in Kabul in January 2023 to prepare a report on the situation in Afghanistan, and two days later, the Taliban arrested him.
The journalist was released from Taliban custody on October 18 after 284 days of detention.
Behboudi, who was born in Afghanistan and grew up in Iran, continued his career as a journalist after receiving asylum in France in 2015. He has also received the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents Prize in 2022.
The Afghan-French journalist said that he was arrested by a Taliban intelligence officer while he was preparing a report in front of the Kabul University.
"They handcuffed my hands and feet and covered my face," he said. Then, they took me to the basement of a building and flogged me for half an hour for seven days in a row," he said, adding that the Taliban accused him of spying for the French intelligence service.
In a part of his observations of the Taliban's prison, Behboudi said, "In this local prison, I saw people who were flogged in front of me and tied to the ceiling. A few hours later, they were no longer moving. They were dead. For the first three months, I was tortured every day. They pulled out my teeth, gave me electric shocks, and gave me forced injections. I couldn't have imagined surviving at all."
In his interview, Behboudi said that he was imprisoned in a two-or-three-square-metre cell with 12 other people, including ISIS members. He said that ISIS prisoners also tortured him for being a "Hazara and a Shia".
Behboudi said that after his release, he still spends his nights in fear due to the trauma of torture.
"I see two psychologists every week, I take medication every night to sleep," he said. I have nightmares every night."
Afghanistan International interviewed nine women and 29 men who were detained by the Taliban's central and provincial intelligence agency over the course of three years. Of these detainees, 18 were transferred to Kabul after a month of torture in different provinces, where they were tortured again.
Six of the prisoners said that they had been subjected to 16 forms of torture. Another 19 people have experienced nine types of torture, and 13 others have experienced two to five types of torture.
Of the 38 detainees, some required treatment during torture, but the Taliban took only two to the hospital and treated three others inside intelligence agencies.
