Sean Langan

to send a message to other journalists not to try.

And this was the rollercoaster.

I'm like, wait, wait, what?

I thought it was innocent.

So now he's just told me, we're going to kill you.

I'm like, oh, no.

And he pauses.

And then he says, but don't worry.

Me and the emir, Siraj Khani, we vetoed the shura.

So you are free to go.

I didn't laugh at this point, but I was just like, one minute you're innocent, next minute we're going to kill you, but no, you're innocent.

And I was just like, whatever.

They find, they read out the ruling of the commander, the Taliban judge.

He could forgive him for being a little selfish and just wanting to get home as quickly as possible.

We would either both live or both die.

I wouldn't leave without him because that was really preying on his mind because there would be another instance where Western journalists had been kidnapped, a ransom had been paid, and the local journalist fixer was killed.

And a good friend of ours, especially my fixers, the year before had been kidnapped by an Italian journalist.

The Italians paid for his ransom and the Taliban killed him.

And the Taliban were aware that didn't make them look good.

And they said to us, don't worry, you won't be like that case with the Italian.