An international dispute was developing last night after an Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taleban was released, apparently in exchange for five senior Taleban insurgents who had been held in an Afghan jail.

His release was negotiated by Emergency, an Italy aid charity, which confirmed that five Taleban prisoners had been freed. In Kabul, Muham-mad Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for President Karzai, said that the exchange “was an exceptional measure taken because we value our relations and friendship with Italy”.

But there was strong condemnation of the agreement, with critics accusing the Afghan and Italian governments of negotiating with terrorists.

After two weeks in captivity the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, gave an extraordinary account of how his Afghan driver, Sayed Agha, had died in the poppy fields of Helmand province.

Writing in La Repubblica, Mastrogiacomo, who is 52, described how he and Mr Agha, with Ajmal Naqshbandi, his Afghan interpreter, were loaded on to a Jeep to wait for hours in the sun for the arrival of a Taleban commander.

“They tie our hands behind our backs, bandage our eyes and make us kneel,” Mastrogiacomo wrote. “But I can see what is going on. I can’t help looking. Our driver, who disappeared for two days and was held in a separate cell, is taken to the middle. The commander announces his sentence, in the name of Islam. He says we are all spies, and that we must die. I see Ajmal weeping. I don’t understand, and I ask him what they said. He replies sobbing, ‘They are going to kill us’.”

Mastrogiacomo said that he then got up on his knees. “I see the driver being held down by four young men. They press his face into the sand, they cut his throat then go on cutting, they cut his whole head off. He manages to make only a single sound, a long moan. They wipe the knife clean on a tunic, and tie the detached head back on the body, and take it to the river bank and let him go.

“I wait, my legs trembling. I stutter something to the commander. I ask him what is happening. I feel myself being held. I imagine myself with my throat being cut, the blood spurting from my arteries, drying in the sand, my body entrusted to the flowing river.”

Mastrogiacomo said that his captors rejoiced when his release was agreed, firing their machineguns into the air in celebration. “The commander embraces me, both false and sincere at the same time. I tell him he has won. Before he lets me go he whispers in my ear, in perfect English, ‘If God so wishes, Inshallah, we will meet again in Paradise.’ I turn round, but he has disappeared already.”

Mastrogiacomo, who is married with two children, was kidnapped on suspicion of spying for British forces. Last night he was on his way home. “My head is spinning but I am happy” he said. “I managed to get out, and I thank everybody who helped me.”

Mr Karzai’s spokesman said: “There were some demands, and some of the demands were accepted. You see the result of it, the journalist was released. This was an exceptional case, and it will not happen again.”

But Adrian Edwards, the UN spokesman in Afghanistan, said: “The UN does not negotiate with terrorists.” The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association said that the deal was “not acceptable”, and a spokesman from the US Embassy in Kabul said: “It is US policy not to make concessions to terrorists’ demands.”

In Rome, Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister, was challenged by the Opposition to explain to Parliament why the reporter had been freed “at the price of freeing terrorists”.

It is not the first time that Italy has been accused of bowing to kidnappers’ demands. Italian hostages in Iraq, including a reporter and charity workers, were previously released amid rumours of huge payments to the Islamic militant kidnappers.

Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the dead driver protested outside the Italian-run hospital at Lashkar Gah where Mastrogiacomo had been recovering. They accused Kabul of caring more about an Italian than an Afghan.

“Why would the Government release five criminals for an infidel foreigner and not for a poor Afghan?” demanded Khan Jan, an uncle of Sayed Agha. Another uncle, Delbar Jan, said “The government makes sacrifice for foreigners, but not for an Afghan.”

In exchange

The Taleban prisoners who were freed were named as Ustad Yasir, head of the Taleban’s cultural wing; Mufti Latifullah Hamkimi, a former spokesman; two commanders, believed to be Hafiz Hamdullad and Abdul Ghaffar; and Mansoor Ahmad, brother of the notorious Taleban fighter Mullah Dadullah

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