The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan confirmed on Wednesday the death of Australian Timothy Weeks, who had adopted the name Jibra'il Omar after converting to Islam.
He passed away after a long struggle with cancer, according to a statement from the Afghan interior ministry.
Omar, an academic who was abducted alongside an American colleague in 2016 while leaving the American University in Kabul, had been held hostage for over three years.
The pair was released in 2019 in a prisoner swap with the Taliban, where three high-ranking members of the Haqqani Network were exchanged for the two academics.
Following his release, Omar, who had embraced Islam during his captivity, chose to return to Afghanistan in 2022, after the Taliban regained control of the country.
"He had been suffering from cancer for a long time," the Afghan interior ministry's statement said. "He had a deep attachment to Afghanistan and the Islamic Emirate and had come back to Kabul to celebrate the victory of the Taliban."
Omar worked as an English teacher in Kabul and was noted for his devotion to learning about Islam. During his time in Afghanistan, he traveled to various provinces to expand his knowledge of the religion. The Taliban expressed their condolences to his family and friends in a statement.
Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official who was also freed in the same 2019 exchange, shared a tribute to Omar on social media. Haqqani, who had spent time with Omar during his captivity, posted a photo of the two together, calling their bond a symbol of shared faith and belief.
“Though Timothy Weeks and I came into this world in different times and distant places, fate brought us together at a crossroads,” Haqqani wrote. “My death became his, my life intertwined with his, and his freedom became mine.”
