Reporter escapes Taliban, Russia repatriates her to Afghanistan

Afghan TV journalist and activist Kobra Hassani, who fled her country after the Taliban regained control in September 2021, recently left Moscow for Kabul, where she faces the risk of being sentenced to death. According to sources in the Afghan diaspora in Russia cited by the Fontanka news site, Hassani, aged 27, first arrived in Ukraine after crossing the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. However, due to the Russian invasion, she attempted to move to Poland but was defrauded and taken to Russian-occupied territories before ending up in Russia after a difficult journey. She was not permitted to travel to Europe or granted asylum in Russia.

In May 2022, Hassani was arrested in St. Petersburg along with 12 others while trying to leave Russia illegally to enter a European Union country as part of a conspiracy. A year later, a court ordered her deportation. Although she applied for asylum at the end of last year, her request was rejected by Russian authorities in January. She was eventually sentenced to two years in prison in February, but after accounting for time served awaiting trial, she was released and the deportation order was lifted.

Despite the possibility of seeking asylum in other countries such as Albania or Germany, Hassani did not have the resources or energy to do so, as stated by her lawyer Maria Beliaeva to the Moscow Times. It is speculated that she decided to return to Kabul because she no longer had the strength to remain in Russia and lacked confidence in being able to relocate to a third country. Russia is reportedly in the process of removing the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations, as announced by the Tass agency in April.

Since Hassani’s departure from Moscow to Kabul has been confirmed by other Afghans in Russia, her lawyers assume that she made the decision based on a lack of viable alternatives. They believe that she felt compelled to leave Russia and doubted her ability to successfully move to another country.