Death of Australian man held captive by the Taliban and later supported their triumph

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Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Wednesday announced the death of Australian Jibra’il Omar, who had returned to the country after having been kidnapped and held hostage by the group for more than three years.

Omar, originally named Timothy Weeks before he converted to Islam, was taken hostage in 2016 alongside an American academic as they left the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where they both worked.

Both men were released in 2019 to the custody of United States forces in southern Afghanistan in exchange for three high-ranking members of the Haqqani Network armed group, a Taliban ally.

“Unfortunately, Australian lecturer Timothy Weeks currently named Jibra’il Omar has passed away of cancer today. He had been suffering from the concern for a long time,” the Afghan interior ministry said in a statement.

From Timothy Weeks to Jibra’il Omar

Omar told SBS Dateline that he had “accepted Islam” in May 2018.

“You may think the Taliban supported me in this decision but they were not supportive at all,” he said.

Omar returned to Kabul in the summer of 2022, a year after the Taliban returned to power.

He said at the time that one of his reasons for returning was to

“I spent three and a half years with Taliban soldiers, and I saw these people in a light that nobody else has been able to do,” he said.

When he returned in 2022, the Taliban said he was “warm-heartedly welcomed” to the country.

Former Australian Taliban hostage given 'hero's welcome' by regime in Afghanistan image

However, his praise of the Taliban brought anger to members of the Australian-Afghani community.

“To see the footage of him brings a lot of anger and frustration to the community,” one told SBS News at the time.

“What is there to celebrate? The fact they are violating women’s rights, that they are not allowing girls to go to school, and leaving millions of people to poverty and hunger, including children?”

Taliban official’s praise for Omar

Following his death, the country’s interior ministry said: “Jibra’il Omar worked as an English teacher in Kabul. He was very fond of Afghanistan and the Islamic Emirate, and based on that, he considered it best to live in Kabul.”

“He travelled to different provinces of Afghanistan and increased his knowledge about Islam,” it continued, extending condolences to the Australian’s family and friends.

Anas Haqqani, who was released in the same exchange as Omar in 2019 and is now a senior Taliban official, posted a photo of the two of them on X, saluting Omar.

“He stayed with us, dressed in Afghan attire, and walked the streets of this land, for the bond of faith and belief holds deeper meaning than any other connection,” Haqqani said.

“Though Timothy Weeks and I came into this world in different times and distant places, fate brought us together at a crossroads where my death became his, my life intertwined with his, and his freedom became mine.”