Why The U.s. Is Detaining A Senior Afghan Diplomat

Previously sealed court documents are shedding light for the first time on the reasons behind the arrest of a senior Afghan diplomat in the United States.

Raheem Peerzada, who also goes by the name Mohammed Rahim Wahidi, was detained by U.S. immigration officers on March 30, 2025, at Washington Dulles International Airport. WELT, a publication owned by Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company, had previously revealed that several women, including an Afghan woman living in Germany, accuse Peerzada of sexually harassing or raping them. Afghan activists have also raised corruption allegations against the former head of Afghanistan’s embassy in Madrid.

Peerzada has been held in U.S. immigration detention since his arrest. Until now, the reasons had remained opaque. According to documents obtained by POLITICO, the U.S. immigration court agency EOIR accuses Peerzada of continuing to work for the Afghan embassy after the Taliban seized power in 2021. In the United States, the Taliban are designated as a terrorist organization.

Unlike other Afghan diplomatic missions, the Madrid embassy under Peerzada allegedly coordinated with the Taliban. Peerzada’s conduct, a federal judge wrote in a May 2025 decision, “had a tendency to promote, sustain and maintain the Taliban.” It should therefore be regarded as “material support” for the Taliban, the ruling said.

Peerzada’s arrest was first reported by POLITICO and was seen in the United States as a symptom of the Trump administration’s hard-line approach to immigrants. In April, Peerzada’s lawyer again petitioned a federal court for his release. No hearing date has yet been set.

WELT’s reporting on the diplomat’s alleged abuse also played a role in Peerzada’s questioning. Several women had accused the Afghan diplomat of using his position as head of the diplomatic mission in Madrid to try to initiate sexual relationships. One woman, who later left Spain for Germany and still lives there, says Peerzada raped her in 2022 — allegedly after she had been given knockout drops. Shortly after WELT’s investigation was published, Peerzada’s tenure at the embassy came to an end. Spain ordered him to leave the country.

When Peerzada entered the United States in March 2025, U.S. border officers from the Department of Homeland Security questioned him at Washington Dulles International Airport. They also asked him how he explained the abuse allegations. Peerzada replied that there were people who wanted to destroy his reputation. “Because I was very active in Afghanistan,” he said.

The officers repeatedly asked Peerzada whether he understood the definitions of rape, “consent to a sexual act” and “drugs.” Peerzada said he did, but denied any wrongdoing. One of his statements is recorded as follows: “Europe a lot is legal. If you want to go to a girl and say ‘Hey, do you want to clap,’ then you get a girl.”

Asked about his relationship with the woman who accuses him of rape, Peerzada said: “I don’t have one. But I see other people and I am engaged to someone else. My wife knows in Islam we are allowed to have multiple wives. But I don’t know this girl.”

During the questioning, U.S. officials also quoted from a Facebook message found as a screenshot in the “deleted” folder on his phone. In it, someone had written to him: “There is nothing left to talk about. You raped her 2.5 years ago. Now you have to wait and see what happens. I promise you, you will be on the news.” Asked about the message, Peerzada said: “This guy wants to make bad name for me.“

The officers also showed significant interest in Peerzada’s connection to his brother-in-law, Farhad Shakeri, whom U.S. authorities accuse of plotting contract killings on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to an indictment filed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, Shakeri was allegedly tasked, among other things, with killing U.S. President Donald Trump. He is also alleged to have recruited people in the United States, in exchange for large cash payments, to surveil Iranian opposition figures and ultimately kill them. One of the defendants was sentenced in January to 15 years in prison. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be in Tehran.

During his airport interrogation, Peerzada said he had met Shakeri in Afghanistan in 2009. A friend, he said, had told him he could visit the family — “and marry a girl.” That was how he met Shakeri’s sister, a U.S. citizen, whom he eventually married. After that, he said, he regularly met Shakeri for dinner at a restaurant after work.

Peerzada gave contradictory statements on whether he had helped Shakeri financially. At one point, he said he had given his brother-in-law small amounts of money between 2009 and 2023. Later, he denied doing so. He also said he had cut off all contact with Shakeri, saying Shakeri had brought shame upon the family.

Peerzada’s defense argues there is no evidence that he financially supported the alleged Iranian agent. In a habeas petition, the former diplomat’s lawyer argues that the U.S. government initially sought to link Peerzada to his brother-in-law, Farhad Shakeri. When no reliable evidence emerged to support that claim, the government shifted to a new theory: that Wahidi’s diplomatic work in Madrid amounted to alleged support for the Taliban.

The defense disputes that. Peerzada worked for the former, internationally recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, not for the Taliban, his lawyers argue. The central piece of evidence — the airport interrogation — was also flawed, according to his lawyer. He claims, the questioning was conducted without a lawyer, without an interpreter and with the help of translation software. Peerzada also never signed the transcript.

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