KABUL/WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban government on Tuesday released U.S. detainee Dennis Coyle after more than a year in detention, but Washington said the move was not sufficient to lift its recent designation of Kabul as a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” and called for it to take more action.
The Taliban foreign ministry said in a statement that Afghan authorities had received a letter from Coyle’s mother requesting her son be pardoned and released on the occasion of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr, following which the Supreme Court of Afghanistan “deemed the period of his detention sufficient and decided to release him”.
The U.S. government censured Afghanistan earlier this month over its detention of American citizens, with U.S. officials warning they could ban U.S. passport holders from travelling to Afghanistan if it did not comply, a restriction currently only in place for North Korea.
The U.S. State Department’s hostage affairs office said Coyle’s release does not lift the March 9 designation against the Taliban government.
“While this is a positive step by the Taliban, more work needs to be done,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “We are still seeking the immediate return of Mahmood Habibi, Paul Overby, and all other unjustly detained Americans. The Taliban must end their practice of hostage diplomacy.”
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Afghanistan did not detain citizens of any country for political purposes but over violations of its laws, and releases followed the completion of judicial procedures, according to the foreign ministry statement.
A senior U.S. administration official said Coyle, 64, was taken from his home in Kabul in January 2025 and held without charges in near-solitary confinement.
His release followed direct action led by Rubio and a unified interagency effort, the official said, and credited the persistence of Coyle’s three sisters, whose advocacy helped drive the effort.
Rubio also thanked the United Arab Emirates for its support in securing Coyle’s release and Qatar’s support for and advocacy for U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Steve Holland and Simon Lewis in Washington; Writing by Tanvi Mehta and YP Rajesh; Editing by Alex Richardson and Paul Simao)
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