VIENNA: An Austrian man has been arrested in Afghanistan, Austria’s foreign ministry has said, with a media report identifying him as an 84-year-old far-right extremist suspected of espionage.

The ministry did not identify the Austrian man and stopped short of providing details of the case “for reasons of data protection”.

“We confirm the arrest of an Austrian citizen, who travelled to Afghanistan in May, contrary to the travel warning that has been in place for decades,” it said in a statement on Monday.

Austrian daily Der Standard first reported about the arrest on Monday and identified the man as 84-year-old Herbert F., a former teacher and known far-right extremist who has been portraying himself as an “Afghanistan expert” in far-right online media.

According to the report by Der Standard, Austrian neo-Nazis called for his release via Telegram channels.

One such Telegram post from June 10 said that Vienna-born Herbert Fritz has been in custody in Afghanistan for almost a month.

“On 7 June, he was transferred to a solitary cell in Kabul. Within the next four weeks, the Taliban

judiciary intends to pronounce a verdict on the absurd accusation of espionage,” said the post on a far-right channel.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2023