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#breaking - Former Taliban commander Haji Najibullah, kidnapper of journalist David Rohde, killer for 3 US soldiers and their interpreter, has just been sentenced to 42 years. Inner City Press live skeeted it, below

Ex-Taliban commander gets 42 years in prison in killings of US soldiers and journalists' kidnappings In April 2025, Najibullah pleaded guilty to providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to take hostages.

Former Taliban commander sentenced to 42 years in prison for killings ... FILE PHOTO – Former Taliban commander Haji Najibullah, previously accused of kidnapping an American journalist, appears on charges related to murdering three US troops in Afghanistan in 2008 during a court hearing in New York, U.S., October 15, 2021, in this courtroom sketch. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters Federal agencies US military Media See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Threads Link Copied! Follow AP — A former Taliban commander was sentenced to 42 years in prison on Tuesday for crimes including kidnapping a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and providing support that led to the deaths of three American soldiers. Haji Najibullah’s sentencing capped a daylong proceeding in Manhattan federal court that featured a dramatic few moments when the reporter, David Rohde, faced Najibullah and described how Najibullah took part in the abduction of him and two other men in 2008 in Afghanistan but was now “refusing to take responsibility as I look at him today.” Rohde, who is currently an MS NOW national security reporter and previously worked for The New York Times and other publications, told Judge Katherine Polk F…

Former Taliban commander gets 42 years in prison in killings of U.S. soldiers, journalists’ kidnappings In April 2025, Najibullah pleaded guilty to providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to take hostages

US judge sentences ex-Taliban commander to 42 years in jail <p>NEW YORK: A former Afghan Taliban commander charged by the United States with abducting a journalist and supporting fighters who killed American troops in 2008 was sentenced on Tuesday to 42 years in prison.</p> <p>Haji Najibullah, 50, was accused by US prosecutors of kidnapping an American journalist, identified as <em>New York Times</em> journalist David Rohde, and two Afghan civilians.</p> <p>He was also charged with the deaths of three US soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in an attack by forces under his command in June 2008. Arrested in Ukraine, he was extradited to the United States in 2020.</p> <p>He pleaded guilty last year to hostage taking and providing material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death, according to a Justice Department statement. “Those who harm Americans and engage in acts of terrorism will be hunted down and brought to justice, no matter how long it takes,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the statement.</p> <p>Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan in November 2008, along with a translator and a driver. According to the <em>Times</em>, which managed to keep the news of hi…

US journalist rips ‘cowardly’ and ‘cruel’ Taliban commander — who’s sentenced to 42 years for kidnapping him "Hostage taking is a cowardly and cruel crime," said David Rohde, as he stared down ex-Taliban commander Haji Najibullah in court.

Office of Public Affairs | Former Taliban Commander Sentenced to 42 ... Press Release Former Taliban Commander Sentenced to 42 Years in Prison for Hostage Taking and Providing Material Support for Acts of Terrorism Resulting in Death Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Share Facebook X LinkedIn Email For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs Haji Najibullah, 50, of Afghanistan, also known as “Najibullah Naim,” also known as “Abu Tayeb,” also known as “Atiqullah,” also known as “Nesar Ahmad Mohammad,” was sentenced to 42 years in prison and five years of supervised release for terrorism charges based on his role in the hostage taking of an American journalist and two Afghan nationals in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2008 and 2009, and his leadership of Taliban fighters who carried out attacks on U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009, resulting in the deaths of American soldiers and other victims. On April 25, 2025, Najibullah pleaded guilty to hostage taking and providing material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death. Today’s sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla. “Those who harm Americans and engage in acts of terrorism will be hunte…

Taliban commander who kidnapped American journalist sentenced to 42 ... David Rohde and two others were held hostage for seven months. ATaliban commander wholed and directly participated in the hostage-taking of journalist David Rohde and two others was sentenced Tuesday in New York to 42 years in prison. For more than seven months in 2008, Haji Najibullah and his co-conspirators held Rohde, his Afghan interpreter and their driver in various safehouses in Afghanistan and Pakistan, aiming to extort ransom payments and the release of Taliban prisoners from the U.S. During that time, Najibullah forced the hostages to film proof-of-life videos during which Taliban fighters pointed automatic weapons at them as they pleaded for their families and the U.S. to meet the Taliban’s demands. "Every day of their captivity, the hostages and their families lived in fear that they would never see their loved ones again," federal prosecutors in New York said. Rohde wrote about his captivity and his escape in a2010 book,"A Rope and a Prayer." Najibullah served as a Taliban commander in Wardak Province, bordering Kabul, beginning in 2007.He also acted as an unofficial spokesperson for the Tali…

Former Taliban leader sentenced to 42 years for kidnapping New York ... This April 9, 1996, file photo shows David Rohde, then of The Christian Science Monitor, at a mass grave site in Kravice, Bosnia. Rohde, reporting for the New York Times, and two other men were kidnapped at gunpoint in Afghanistan in 2008. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File) By Molly Crane Newman | New York Daily News PUBLISHED: June 10, 2026 at 5:09 AM PDT | UPDATED: June 10, 2026 at 5:17 AM PDT Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A former Taliban commander convicted of taking a New York Times reporter and two Afghan nationals hostage in 2008 and providing support to fighters who killed three U.S. servicemembers was sentenced to 42 years in prison by a Manhattan judge Tuesday. The term was handed down to Haji “Najib” Najibullah, more than a year after his April 2025 guilty plea to orchestrating the kidnapping of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde and aiding acts of terrorism. Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla said the violent kidnapping of Rohde and the two other victims was “extraordinary in its casual brutality” and dehumanization. Rohde and the men he was abducted with managed to es…