House committee passes resolution aiming to bring home Louisville man kidnapped by the Taliban

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been 544 days since Ryan Corbett was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but lawmakers in Washington met Tuesday to work on a solution to bring him home to his family in Louisville.

Corbett moved to Afghanistan with his wife Anna and their kids in 2010, starting a company to help Afghans start their own small businesses. After rebuilding their lives and spending years there, Kabul fell to the Taliban. A worldwide story in 2021, the Corbetts had to flee the country with thousands of others.

Not wanting to leave the people he's helped behind, Corbett went back, and his visa was approved the following year. It was on a trip in August 2022 that he was kidnapped by the Taliban.

He is currently living in a 9-foot square cell. He isn't getting proper nutrition, is only getting outside once a month and has had a total of three quick phone calls with his family since being detained. Recently, they found out Corbett is having seizures and fainting because of the conditions.

"It's awful," Drue Corbett, Ryan's father, said last week. "(It's a) damp, cold prison cell down in the basement — very little light, no heat."

The Taliban has never given a reason for the kidnapping, and Corbett's family was told to keep quiet for months.

But Tuesday, The House Committee on Foreign Affairs met to discuss a resolution to get him home. Corbett's wife, Anna, testified before the same committee in November, pleading for their help.

"We will continue our fight every day until we bring him home," Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, R-10, said during Tuesday's meeting. "As a father of five children myself, I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering Ryan's family is feeling right now."

After discussion, the committee unanimously recommended the resolution to the full House.

"This will send a strong message to the Taliban that America 3 both Republicans and Democrats alike — will not tolerate illegitimate detention of American citizens, and our message is clear," McCaul said. "Congress will not rest until Ryan and every American citizen wrongfully detained is brought home."

To read about the resolution, click here.

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