WABC-TV(NEW YORK) — The mother and brother of New York City bombing suspect Ahmad Rahami spent two nights in an Afghan jail before being released, though they have not been allowed to leave the country, Rahami’s father told ABC News Thursday.
The father, Mohammad Rahami, had said in an interview Tuesday that his wife Rajiba and son Qassim had been pulled off of a flight in Dubai, questioned for 16 hours and then sent against their wishes to Kabul, Afghanistan. The mother and son had been attempting to return to the U.S.
“Why send my son back to Afghanistan? He is a U.S. citizen,” Mohammad Rahami told ABC News then in his first in-depth broadcast interview. “You have any questions? Bring him home. [Don’t] send him to a different country.”
The elder Rahami denied that anyone else in his family had anything to do with his other son Ahmad Rahami’s alleged bombings in New York and New Jersey on Sept. 17, which injured 29 people.
The Rahami family is originally from Afghanistan. Ahmad came to the U.S. in 1995, got his Green Card in 2000 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2011, Mohammad said.
Ahmad has been receiving treatment at a New Jersey hospital since he was shot seven times in a shootout with police two days after the bombings. He has been charged with a litany of crimes connected to the bombings, some other unexploded devices and the gun fight with police.
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