Canada – Global News, February 02, 2025
A veteran of the Canadian airborne regiment and a former United Nations security advisor, Dave Lavery has been traveling in and out of Kabul for two decades.
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, he has also helped evacuate hundreds of Afghans vulnerable to reprisals because of their work for Canada’s military.
But while the Taliban had not troubled him in the past, when he landed at Hamid Karzai airport on the morning of Nov. 11, 2024, they seemed to be waiting for him.
They took him into custody and held him for 77 days until finally letting him go on Jan. 26. “It was nerve-wracking, it was intimidating,” he told Global News on Sunday.
In an interview a week after he was freed, Lavery said the Taliban questioned him repeatedly about whether he was a spy. His captors were also suspicious because he was carrying 18 visas and plane tickets for two Afghan families cleared to come to Canada.
The beret and combat jacket in his bag similarly were held against him, he said, although they were simply to wear when he lay a Remembrance Day wreath at a memorial for Canadian soldiers.
“I’m a spy, that kind of stuff,” he said, describing the allegations the Taliban’s general directorate of intelligence put to him during interrogations.
He said he still does not know what, if any, deals were made by the Canadian government or the Qatari intermediaries who negotiated his release. “That’s the million-dollar question,” he said.
