\n<\/p>\n
The son of a British couple detained by the Taliban five months ago has told the BBC that he fears they may die in prison.<\/p>\n
Peter Reynolds, 80, and Barbie, 76, were arrested on 1 February while returning to their home in central Bamiyan province, Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Their son Jonathan Reynolds said their health was rapidly deteriorating, with his father suffering serious convulsions and his mother “numb” from anaemia and malnutrition.<\/p>\n
It is not known exactly why they were detained, and a <\/b>Taliban official told the BBC in February that the group planned to release the couple “as soon as possible”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The UN has also warned that they could perish “in such degrading conditions” if they do not receive medical care at once, calling their detention “inhumane”.<\/p>\n Mr Reynolds said it had been a “harrowing and surreal” five months waiting for the release of his parents, who lived in Afghanistan for 18 years<\/a>, where they had citizenship and ran education projects.<\/p>\n One of these projects involved training women and children and had apparently been approved by local authorities, despite the Taliban banning education for girls over 12-years-old and not allowing women to work.<\/p>\n Mr Reynolds said his parents had been held in harsh conditions – including a maximum security prison – despite being “deemed innocent” by a judge and facing no charges.<\/p>\n “My dad was chained to murderers and criminals,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding that they had at one point been held in a basement for six weeks without sunlight, and not allowed out.<\/p>\n The couple revealed “just how bad their health is” when they last had contact with their children on 15 June, Mr Reynolds said.<\/p>\n “My dad’s health is deteriorating fast in particular,” he said of the 80-year-old, who has a history of minor heart attacks.<\/p>\n “Now he’s maybe got something like early Parkinson’s – tremors and shakes down the right side of his body, his arms and face,” he told BBC Breakfast.<\/p>\n He added that his father spent “half an hour convulsing on the prison floor” before his wife called for a prison guard to move him onto a “mattress pad on the floor” serving as a bed.<\/p>\n Mrs Reynolds “has blue hands and feet to do with anaemia, malnutrition, just not getting the right healthcare,” he added.<\/p>\n Mr Reynolds said he did not know his parents’ exact location – and that he was unsure “that the demand has been made for their immediate release”.<\/p>\n “Every week it seems like we’re told ‘just wait two or three more days now\u2026 just hang tight’.<\/p>\n “Week after week we’re told that – and they’re still in prison.”<\/p>\n However, he said he was grateful to the Foreign Office (FCDO) for the level of communication with the family.<\/p>\n The couple have both had birthdays in prison, and last week marked their 55th wedding anniversary; they married in Kabul in 1970.<\/p>\n Mr Reynolds said: “I’m thankful they were together, but they’re certainly not free.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The UN likewise warned on Monday that the pair’s health was quickly declining, and questioned why they were being held at all.<\/p>\n