In a gripping moment at a Manhattan court on Monday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist confronted his former Taliban captor, now sentenced to 42 years in prison. David Rohde, who endured months of captivity in Afghanistan, delivered a piercing glare at Haji Najibullah as the former Taliban commander faced justice.
“Hostage taking is a cowardly and cruel crime,” declared Rohde, addressing Najibullah, who had admitted in April to kidnapping the journalist at gunpoint in Kabul back in November 2008. The abduction followed a deceptive invitation for an interview, orchestrated by Najibullah.
Rohde criticized Najibullah for his lack of remorse, stating, “He’s refusing to take responsibility for his actions as I look at him right now.” Meanwhile, the 50-year-old Najibullah remained unresponsive, avoiding eye contact with Rohde from his position at the defense table.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had advocated for a life sentence for Najibullah, citing his alleged role in the abduction of Rohde, his interpreter Asadullah Mangal, and local journalist Tahir Ludin. The hostages were forced to trek across the border into Pakistan, where they were held throughout the harsh winter months.
The captives were subjected to terrifying conditions, with machine guns pointed at their heads while being filmed for chilling hostage videos. Prosecutors revealed that the kidnappers demanded a substantial ransom from Rohde’s family, coupled with the release of Taliban prisoners, as the price for their release.
In one particularly haunting 2009 video, Rohde, who was working for The New York Times at the time of his abduction, pleaded, “If you don’t help me, I will die,” a distressing testament cited by federal authorities.
Prosecutors also accused Najibullah of playing a role in a slew of Taliban attacks, including the June 2008 ambush of a US convoy that killed three American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
“He reveled in the targeted killings of American service members,” prosecutor David Robles said Tuesday, calling Najibullah’s conduct “callous, brazen and depraved.”
After seven months and 10 days in captivity, Rohde and Ludin daringly escaped after using a rope to lift themselves out of the Taliban compound as their tormentors slept, Rohde wrote in his 2010 book, “A Rope and a Prayer: The Story of a Kidnapping.” Mangal escaped five weeks later.
Wearing a tan jail-issued jumpsuit, Najibullah gave a soft-spoken attempt at an apology to Rohde and his family Tuesday afternoon, as he read from a prepared statement.
“What happened to him was terrible, and I deeply regret my role in it,” he told the court through an interpreter.
Najibullah, who has been held without bail since his arrest in October 2020, also claimed that the US war on Afghanistan had left him “no choice” but to become a Taliban member.
Other Taliban terrorists were furious that he had allowed Rohde to escape, and later killed Najibullah’s brother as punishment, he added.
His court-appointed federal defender, Andrew Dalack, had urged Judge Katherine Folk Failla for leniency, asking for an 18-year prison sentence for someone he denied was the “monster” portrayed by the feds.
“He’s a human being with a complicated story,” Dalack told the court.
The government has also not provided direct evidence that Najibullah was behind the fatal 2008 attack cited by prosecutors, the attorney argued.
As he addressed the court, Rohde began to choke up as he ripped Najibullah for being a serial “liar.”
First, the terrorist lied about the 2008 purported interview-turned-kidnapping, he said.
Rohde, who is now a national security reporter at MS NOW, then described the terrorist falsely claiming to fellow Taliban members that Rohde was a US “spy” rather than reveal the truth — that he was a journalist who had simply wanted to hear his story.
“I couldn’t be prouder of being part of this profession,” Rohde told the court, holding back tears.
