Wagga academic and former Taliban hostage dies in Afghanistan

Wagga Wagga academic and former hostage of the Taliban, Jibra’il Omar, formerly known as Timothy Weeks, has passed away in Afghanistan after returning to the country in 2022.

Taliban authorities confirmed that the 54-year-old had been suffering from cancer for some time.

“Australian lecturer Timothy Weeks currently named Jibra’il Omar has passed away of cancer today,” the Afghan interior ministry said in a statement this week.

In August 2016, Mr Weeks and American Kevin King were abducted at gunpoint from the American University of Afghanistan by Taliban soldiers.

In a video release almost two years after his capture, Mr Weeks pleaded with the Australian Government to negotiate his release, saying, “I feel like you have abandoned me”.

He and Mr King were released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US in late 2019.

Speaking to the media on his return to Australia, he described his ordeal as “long and torturous” and thanked the Australian, American and Pakistani governments, which worked for his release.

Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack said he was deeply saddened by the death of the former Wagga local.

“I was there when Tim was welcomed back to Australia by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Marise Payne and also attended a civic reception in Wagga Wagga on Christmas Eve where relieved friends and family shared the community’s joy at his return home,” he said.

“He said at the civic reception he had a special place in his heart for people to whom he owed his life while a captive, including his Taliban guards, and that he found himself missing them at times.”

Mr Omar had converted to Islam in 2018 and controversially celebrated the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

In a video released on his return to Afghanistan in 2022, Mr Weeks again spoke positively of his relationships throughout captivity.

“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.

Taliban Commander and politician Anas Haqqani was one of three senior Taliban members released from Bagram prison as part of the 2019 prisoner swap.

“Fate brought us together at a crossroads where my death became his, my life intertwined with his, and his freedom became mine; together, we crossed through those red lights,” he wrote on X (Twitter) this week.

“Today, cancer took him from us, leaving me deeply saddened. Yet, this is the path to eternity; we all depart through different means, but the manner of leaving matters most, and his was truly good. Indeed, we belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return.”

Mr McCormack said that despite the controversial choice to return to Kabul, Mr Omar had felt an obligation to finish the job he had started before his capture.

“Like all of us, Tim had his faults and became very much an apologist for the Taliban in the years since he returned to Afghanistan, but all of that aside, what he wished for was for Afghani women be afforded the chance to attend university, to learn English and to gain employment,” he said.

“We will mourn Tim’s passing and thank him for what he did for international development.”