Freed Canadian Hostage Says He Didn’t Believe Trump Was President When He Was First Told
- 7 years ago
A man who had been held captive in Afghanistan for several years with his wife and children has indicated that he didn’t believe Donald Trump had actually been elected U.S. president when he first heard the news.
A man who had been held captive in Afghanistan for several years with his wife and children has indicated that he didn’t believe Donald Trump had actually been elected U.S. president when he first heard the news.
According to the Toronto Star which interviewed Joshua Boyle soon after their release, “One of the captors told Boyle the new U.S. president was Donald Trump before he was forced to make a ‘proof-of-life’ video. ‘It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious,’ he said.”
The Canadian made the comment the same day he, his American-born wife Caitlan Coleman, and their three young children, who were born in captivity, landed in Ontario where his parents live.
Their arrival marked the end of a five-year ordeal which began when the couple was taken hostage during a hiking trip in Afghanistan, reports CBC.
Though Boyle has been criticized for taking his then-pregnant wife to the high-risk country, NPR has reported, “During [a] press conference, Boyle said they were entering the country as pilgrims, intent on helping the people living in Taliban-controlled regions.”
Since being freed, he has spoken out about being kept in squalid places and the physical harm his wife endured including a forced abortion of a baby girl.
The family was freed last week after Pakistani authorities, tipped off by U.S. officials, led a rescue mission which ended in a shootout and the captors’ deaths, notes The Hill.
A man who had been held captive in Afghanistan for several years with his wife and children has indicated that he didn’t believe Donald Trump had actually been elected U.S. president when he first heard the news.
According to the Toronto Star which interviewed Joshua Boyle soon after their release, “One of the captors told Boyle the new U.S. president was Donald Trump before he was forced to make a ‘proof-of-life’ video. ‘It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious,’ he said.”
The Canadian made the comment the same day he, his American-born wife Caitlan Coleman, and their three young children, who were born in captivity, landed in Ontario where his parents live.
Their arrival marked the end of a five-year ordeal which began when the couple was taken hostage during a hiking trip in Afghanistan, reports CBC.
Though Boyle has been criticized for taking his then-pregnant wife to the high-risk country, NPR has reported, “During [a] press conference, Boyle said they were entering the country as pilgrims, intent on helping the people living in Taliban-controlled regions.”
Since being freed, he has spoken out about being kept in squalid places and the physical harm his wife endured including a forced abortion of a baby girl.
The family was freed last week after Pakistani authorities, tipped off by U.S. officials, led a rescue mission which ended in a shootout and the captors’ deaths, notes The Hill.