Former Australian hostage in Afghanistan Timothy Weeks dies in Kabul

Timothy Weeks, a 54-year-old English language teacher from Australia, who spent three and a half years in captivity in Afghanistan, died in Kabul on Wednesday.

Weeks, who converted to Islam and went by the name of Jibra’il Omar, was living in Kabul at the time of his death.

The Australian academic had been a lecturer at the American University in Kabul in 2016 when taken hostage by the Islamic Emirate along with an American colleague Kevin King.

He was held hostage for three years before being released in a prisoner swap in 2019.

The prisoner-swap deal saw the two men released in exchange for three Islamic Emirate prisoners, including Anas Haqqani.

According to a statement issued by the Islamic Emirate, Omar passed away in Kabul on Wednesday. He had been battling cancer for “a long time”, the statement read.

“He was captured by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate in the past years, then he was released from prison during the exchange of prisoners, then he converted to the holy religion of Islam with his self-satisfaction and changed his name from Timothy Weeks to (Jabriel Omar),” the statement read.

“Jabriel 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,” the IEA said.

Abdul Mateen Qani, the spokesman for the Islamic Emirate’s ministry of interior, said on X that the “MoI of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan expresses its deep sorrow over his death and expresses its condolences to his friends and relatives.”