An American academic with deep Arizona roots is free after spending more than 14 months in Taliban custody in Afghanistan, his release coming on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and drawing immediate relief from family, lawmakers and senior U.S. officials.
Dennis Coyle, 64, was detained in January 2025 on unspecified allegations of violating Afghan laws. The U.S. State Department had formally designated him as wrongfully detained — a designation that carries diplomatic weight and typically triggers more aggressive government advocacy on behalf of the detainee. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Coyle had been freed in Kabul, with the country’s Supreme Court determining that the time he had already served was sufficient.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release and credited mediation efforts by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in helping secure the outcome. The Taliban, for its part, framed the release as the result of a standard judicial process rather than diplomatic pressure.
The timing was complicated by a broader deterioration in U.S.-Taliban relations. Earlier this month, Washington officially designated Afghanistan as a sponsor of wrongful detention, accusing the Taliban government of using detained Americans as diplomatic leverage. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi rejected that characterization.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly celebrated the news on social media, expressing relief for Coyle’s loved ones.
Those loved ones are close to home. Though Coyle had spent nearly two decades working as an academic in Afghanistan and was living in Colorado before his detention, his family ties to Arizona remain strong. Two sisters and his 83-year-old mother live in the Phoenix area, and the family’s roots in the city run deep — his grandparents operated Mary Coyle’s ice cream parlor in Phoenix for decades.
In a statement released through a website the family had built to advocate for his release, they expressed profound gratitude for his survival and return after what they called 421 of the most challenging and uncertain days of their lives.
