Taliban releases American academic held in custody for more than a year | Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for more than a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher was released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal by his family and after Afghanistan’s Supreme Court “considered his previous imprisonment to be sufficient.”

Coyle was detained in January 2025. Afghan authorities accused him of breaking laws, but never specified which ones.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release.

“President Trump is committed to ending wrongful detention overseas — Dennis joins more than 100 Americans who have been released in the past 15 months under his second term in office,” Rubio said in a statement. “While this is a positive step by the Talibanmore work needs to be done.”

Earlier this month, the US State Department announced the designation of Afghanistan as a sponsor of unlawful detention, accusing it of engaging in “hostage diplomacy.” Afghanistan has joined Iran as countries singled out by the United States for detaining Americans in hopes of extracting political concessions.

Afghanistan has rejected US claims that it is detaining foreigners to gain leverage over other countries, saying Afghan authorities are arresting people for breaking laws to avoid making a deal.

The State Department said earlier this month that the Taliban were believed to be holding at least four American citizens, including Coyle and Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company.

The FBI and Habibi’s family have said they believe he was taken by Taliban forces in 2022, but Afghan authorities have denied holding him.

Habibi’s brother, Ahmad Habibi, welcomed Coyle’s release, but said in a statement that “we hope that our family will soon have the same sense of relief when Mahmood is returned home to us.”

Rubio also named another American, Paul Overby, who is listed on the FBI’s missing persons website who disappeared in mid-2014 in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan while doing research for a book he was writing.

“We continue to seek the immediate return of Mahmood Habibi, Paul Overby and all other wrongfully detained Americans,” Rubio said. “The Taliban must end their practice of offering diplomacy.”

Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said his country “has not arrested citizens of any country to achieve political goals,” according to a statement released by the ministry. Coyle, he said, was released “after going through the judicial process as a result of breaking the laws.”

Rubio and Muttaqi thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping broker the release, and mentioned that Qatar also played a role. The Foreign Ministry said Muttaqi met with former US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Kabul before the release.

Afghanistan released Coyle “on the basis of humanitarian sympathy and goodwill, and believes that such steps can further strengthen the atmosphere of trust between countries,” the foreign ministry said in its statement, adding that Kabul “also expresses the hope that both countries will find solutions to the remaining problems through understanding and constructive dialogue in the future.”

The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of US troops, nearly 20 years after they were ousted from power in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks in the United States.