A Canadian man who was rescued from his terrorist captors along with his American wife and their three children after spending five years as hostages refused to board a US military plane on Thursday over fears he will now face punishment over his first marriage to a known terror suspect.
Caitlan Coleman, 31, was given back to US commandos along with her husband Joshua Boyle, 34, and their three young children after being rescued by Pakistani special forces late on Wednesday night.
They were being transported from one location to another by their Haqqani-network captors when Pakistani forces ambushed their convoy and rescued them.
President Trump celebrated their release as a joint effort between US and Pakistani officials on Thursday.
However, Canadian officials told CNN on Thursday that Boyle is refusing to get on a US military plane.
They say he fears he will be punished for his first marriage to al Qaeda supporter Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of Omar Khadr who spent eight years between 2002 and 2010 in Guantanamo Bay for war crimes he still denies.
It is not clear whether he fears arrest in America, in Canada or in both.
Boyle and Khadr were married between 2009 and 2010. They grew close when he volunteered to be the family's spokesman during the media row surrounding Omar's detention.
A year after they separated, Boyle and Coleman - who have been friends since they were teenagers - got married.
In 2012, when she was five months pregnant, he took her to Afghanistan, a country he was 'passionate' about, and they were captured.
White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly said on Thursday afternoon that troops had given Boyle and Coleman the option of going either to Canada or the US. He did not confirm whether or not they have yet left Pakistan.
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