Afghan army deserter who killed three Australians released by Qatar

Australian soldiers at the Tarin Kowt military base in Uruzgan province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan in 2007. Photo / Musadeq Sadeq, AP, File

An Afghan army deserter who murdered three Australian soldiers had been released from custody in Qatar and his whereabouts were not known, officials said on Monday.

The soldier known as Hekmatullah fled after shooting dead the Australian soldiers and wounding two others on a base in 2012 and was sentenced to death in 2013.

"The government's position has always been that Hekmatullah should serve a just and proportionate sentence, appropriate to his crimes, and not be granted early release or pardon," an Australian government statement said.

Defense Force Chief General Angus Campbell told a Senate committee the families of the soldiers were notified of Hekmatullah's release.

Hugh Jeffrey, a Defense Department international policy expert, told the committee Australia discovered Hekmatullah had been released "from Qatar through highly sensitive intelligence".

Jeffrey did not know the circumstances of the release.

The Qatari government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hekmatullah had been transferred from Afghanistan to Qatar in September last year in a deal brokered by the United States ahead of peace talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban.

One of the last known images of rogue Afghan soldier Hekmatullah, as he was being transported to Qatar last year. Almost a decade after murdering Australian soldiers Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Private Robert Poate and Sapper James Martin - the killer has been released pic.twitter.com/C4dNODwxd1

— Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) October 10, 2021

The energy-rich Arabian nation has been the site of negotiations between the US and the Taliban and has hosted an office for the group that now controls Afghanistan. - AP