US Citizen Released by Taliban After More Than a Year in ‘Near-Solitary Confinement’

American Dennis Coyle smiles after being released by Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, who had held him for over a year, before boarding a plane at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mudassir Safi)

Dennis Coyle, the Colorado man who had been detained by the Taliban for more than a year, has been released and will return home.

Coyle, as noted in a report from CBS News, spent “nearly two decades” in Afghanistan for language research. In January 2025, the Taliban took him from his apartment in Kabul. According to his family, Coyle had been placed in “near-solitary confinement” despite not being formally charged with anything.

“Our family is overjoyed to announce our brother Dennis Coyle is free from the Taliban.  Thank you for breaking this story first,” the Coyle family said in a statement to NewsNation, thanking the network for its coverage of Coyle.

The CBS News report continued:

Last June, the U.S. government officially designated Coyle as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a status that unlocks select government tools and elevates the priority of efforts to secure his release.

The United States does not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government and lacks a diplomatic presence in the country, complicating release negotiations that are often conducted by Qatar as an intermediary on behalf of the U.S.

In a statement announcement Coyle’s release, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed the 64-year-old had been arrested for “violating the enforced laws of Afghanistan.” Translated from Pashto, the statement read:

On the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has released one American national, “Dennis Coyle,” who had been detained for violating the enforced laws of Afghanistan.

On the occasion of the blessed days of Eid for the family of the aforementioned prisoner, and from the esteemed leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, of compassion and pardon…

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