America labels Afghanistan a country backing unjust imprisonment

Marco Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday he has designated Afghanistan as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention,” demanding Taliban authorities release two Americans and commit to ending its “hostage diplomacy.”

The move, described by the Afghan authorities as “regrettable”, comes just over a week after Iran became the first country added to Washington’s new “wrongful detention” blacklist.

President Donald Trump in September signed an executive order that created the blacklist, similar to designations by the United States on terrorism.

“The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions,” Rubio said in a statement.

He said it was “not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals.”

In response, the Afghan foreign ministry denied that foreign nationals had been detained for ransom.

“Certain individuals have been detained on charges of violating established laws, and in many instances, they have been released in the normal course following the completion of legal procedures,” it said in a statement in English.

The Taliban authorities returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, leading to the collapse of the previous government and the hasty departure of US troops, who had ended their rule between 1996 and 2001.

Rubio called on the government in Kabul to release US citizens Dennis Coyle and Mahmoud Habibi as well as “all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to cease the practice of hostage diplomacy forever”.

Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman, previously served as Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation.

He was arrested in August 2022 in Kabul along with dozens of other employees of his telecommunications company, according to US authorities.

The State Department has issued a reward of $5 million for information leading to Habibi’s return.

Coyle is an academic from Colorado who worked for two decades in Afghanistan before being detained in January 2025, according to the James Foley Foundation.

The Afghan foreign ministry said that in the last year, the country “has taken positive steps as a goodwill gesture regarding the cases of some detained US nationals”.

A number of US citizens were freed last year. In September, Amir Amiri, who had been held since December 2024, was handed over to Trump’s special envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, who was in Kabul to negotiate a prisoner exchange.

Chinese-American Faye Hall, who was arrested in February 2025 in central Bamiyan province, was also freed.

In January 2025, two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who had been convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.

Another American, aerospace engineer George Glezmann, was released after more than two years in detention during a visit by Boehler in March last year.

The Afghan ministry pointed out that talks between Kabul and Washington have been held with the mediation of Qatar.

It said it wanted the issue of detentions “to be appropriately resolved and concluded through the ongoing discussions and constructive engagement between the two sides”.

AFP