Hekmatullah walked free in Qatar after Afghanistan fell to Taliban

Hekmatullah, the rogue Afghan army soldier who murdered three Australians in 2012, has been allowed to walk free in Qatar, and officials have no firm idea of his whereabouts.

The confirmation of Hekmatullah’s release draws another grim line under Australia’s two-decade contribution to the war in Afghanistan.

Hekmatullah, the rogue Afghan army soldier who murdered three Australians in 2012, has been allowed to walk free, and Australian officials have no firm idea of his whereabouts.

The Australian can reveal the confessed killer was released from house arrest in Qatar along with five other “high-risk prisoners” soon after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

Defence quietly notified the families of his three victims – Lance Corporal Stjepan “Rick” Milosevic, Private Robert Poate, and Sapper James Martin – but did not make the news public.

Australian authorities lost track of the insider-attack killer after he was set free in Doha, but he is presumed to have returned to Afghanistan. “His whereabouts cannot be verified,” a government spokesman said.

“We share the sorrow of Australians at this outcome and again offer our condolences to the families and the loved ones of our three fallen soldiers.”

The confirmation of Hekmatullah’s release draws another grim line under Australia’s two-decade contribution to the war in Afghanistan, after the late-August scramble to rescue hundreds of Afghan support staff from Taliban retribution.

Sapper James Martin

Defence, Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs bureaucrats will be grilled by a Senate committee on Monday over their knowledge of the former Afghan army sergeant’s release, the adequacy of preparations for Australia’s withdrawal and the long-term security consequences of the country’s return to Taliban rule.

Lance Corporal Milosevic’s widow, Kelly Walton, said Defence had been unable to tell her whether her husband’s killer had been allowed to remain in Qatar, or whether he had been put on a plane to Afghanistan.

She said she was also disappointed the government could not tell her whether Hekmatullah had a passport, and if he was on an international watchlist.

“None of those questions have ever been answered,” she told The Australian.

“The (Defence) liaison officer said he was instructed to advise Hekmatullah had been released from house arrest, and that was about it.

“I would like to know, has he gone his own way and dis­appeared into the abyss? Or has the Taliban kept him within their grasp and are they telling him what he should be doing and where he should be going?”

Private Poate’s father, Hugh, said he had been expecting Hekmatullah’s release since July, when the US ended its two-decade presence in Afghanistan with the late-night abandonment of Bagram Air Base.

“The families were called and informed he was one of those who had been released,” he said.

“Whether he was put on a plane and taken back to Afghanistan, I don’t know. But I would imagine so, because that is where he was from. Why would he want to stay there when his family is back in Afghanistan?”

Mr Poate said Defence’s failure to disclose the news publicly was indicative of its “general lack of transparency”.

Lance Corporal Stjepan “Rick” Milosevic

Private Robert Poate

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, said Monday’s hearing on Australia’s engagement in Afghanistan “will be asking questions about this scandalous and intolerable situation”.

“The serious question of the whereabouts of Hekmatullah is of the gravest concern to all Australians – particularly those in the ADF who risk everything to defend our freedom,” she said.

Hekmatullah, who like many Afghans is known by only one name, shot dead the three Australians and wounded two others as they played cards at a forward ­operating base north of Australia’s main base at Tarin Kowt on ­August 29, 2012. The so-called “green-on-blue” killings sparked a six-month manhunt involving elite Australian spies, special forces operators and cutting-edge technological capabilities. He was eventually found and arrested in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

He later confessed to the killings, and vowed he would do the same again if given a chance.

Australia has always maintained Hekmatullah should serve “a just and proportionate sentence” and not be granted early release or pardon. “We made repeated representations over a long period advocating this position to relevant governments,” the government spokesman said.

But the families of his victims remain angry Australia did not press harder for the Afghan government to carry out a death sentence handed to Hekmatullah by its Supreme Court, or lobby the US to kill him by drone strike when he was located in Pakistan.

They are also furious at the ­actions of the US, which agreed under Donald Trump to a ­prisoner exchange with the ­Taliban as a condition of peace negotiations.

The Afghan government released about 5000 prisoners at the insistence of the US. Hekmatullah was one of six “hardcore Taliban” killers flown to Doha ahead of the peace talks, and remained under house arrest there.