Taliban releases video of couple abducted in Afghanistan pleading to Obama, Trump

The Taliban has released a video of Canadian national Joshua Boyle and American Caitlan Coleman, a couple abducted in Afghanistan in 2012.

The video shows their two children, who were born in captivity, and is a plea for help to the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and his successor, Donald Trump.

“My children have seen their mother defiled,” said Coleman.

The video was posted on social media, including on Twitter, on Monday night by Sabiq Jihadmal, who is responsible for circulating Taliban propaganda.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to EFE that the couple is still being held captive by the Taliban and that the video was not released “officially.”

Boyle and Coleman were abducted in 2012 in Afghanistan where they had traveled as part of a trip through several former Central Asian Soviet republics, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“Today is Dec. 3, 2016. We have waited since 2012 for somebody to understand our problems (…) We ask quickly, in our collective 14th year in prison, urge the government on both sides to reach some agreement to allow us freedom,” Coleman says at the beginning of the video.

Coleman also makes an appeal to both Obama and Trump to negotiate their release with the Taliban.

“They want money, power, friends. You must give them these things before progress can be made,” she urges.

Coleman adds that the execution of insurgents by the Afghan government will have serious consequences on them and hence must not be carried out.

Her husband appeals to the foreign ministries of Canada and the US to meet the demands of the terrorists.

“And I’m sure you think that my family could get out of this if we wanted, and I can only promise you that we can’t. You, like us, probably underestimate the arrogant ignorance that pervades these people,” he says.

This is the second video of the couple to be released this year after one was released in August, which the Taliban claimed was recorded between 10-15 months ago. EFE