Windowless basement for 14 months: Who is Dennis Walter Coyle, US detainee released by Afghanistan’s Taliban?

Coyle, 64, had spent years in the South Asian country on Afghan language research. Describing him, the James Foley Foundation website said, “He is a quiet researcher whose love of language lead him to Afghanistan and its people. He spent years living in Afghanistan, among the Afghan people, steeped in their language and culture.

A senior US administration official was quoted as saying by Reuters that Coyle was taken from his home in Kabul in January last year and held without charges in near-solitary confinement.

‘Windowless basement for 14 months’

Nearly three months ago, Coyle’s sister Molly Long narrated the heart-wrenching experience she underwent upon his detention by the Taliban. Speaking to The Denver Post, Long said their family learned that Coyle was kidnapped near his workplace by the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence. The family could not contact Coyle until July 3, and later they heaved a sigh of relief after receiving a letter from him.

Afterwards, they engaged in four or five 10-minute phone calls with him and their conversation remained heavily guarded. Long was quoted as saying by The Denver Post that the family knows he had been held in a basement with very little light and no windows. He had no mattress, merely a floor mat to sleep on and could not speak to anyone. “He had all his rights and freedoms taken away,” Long said.

Unmarried with no kids, Coyle was brought up in the Phoenix area and moved to Pueblo for a job in the late 1990s. Later, he returned to the US every 18 to 24 months. He had evacuated Afghanistan in 2021 after the US military pulled out of the country. However, he returned 18 months ago to complete his language project.

It was the advocacy of Coyle’s three sisters which led to mounting pressure on the US government to seek Coyle’s release, as credited by a US official.

Taliban, a state sponsor of wrongful detention: US

Upon receiving a letter from Coyle’s mother, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan “deemed the period of his detention sufficient ⁠and ‌decided to release him”. Afghanistan did not detain ​citizens of any country for political purposes ‌, but over violations of its laws, the statement quoted Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi as saying, and ‌they were released ​following the ​completion of judicial ​procedures.

This month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan’s Taliban government as a “state sponsor of wrongful detention”, demanding that Kabul release all U.S. ​citizens detained ​in the country, including Coyle and ⁠Mahmood Habibi, the former head of Afghanistan’s civil aviation.