NYC Bombing Suspect's Mom, Brother Released From Afghan Jail

Mother and brother of Ahmad Rahami were pulled off a plane in Dubai.

ByABC News
September 29, 2016, 12:51 PM

— -- 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 today.

The father, Mohammad Rahami, had said in an interview Tuesday that his wife Najiba 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."

PHOTO: Mohammad Rahami, the father of Chelsea bomb suspect Ahmad Rahami, sits down with ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross.
Mohammad Rahami, the father of Chelsea bomb suspect Ahmad Rahami, sits down with ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross.

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.

[Editor's Note: This updated version of the story corrects the first name of Mohammad Rahami's wife, Najiba.

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