Former hostages Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman engaged in a custody battle

OTTAWA – Newly unsealed court documents are paving the way for a custody battle between a Canadian and his American wife who were kidnapped and held hostage in Afghanistan for five years.

The family court documents detailing the dispute between Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman over their three children, all born in captivity, were previously subject to a publication ban.

Coleman, who was kidnapped with Boyle while both were hiking in Afghanistan in 2012, asked the court permission to leave Canada and return to the United States with the couple's children.

Boyle tried to prevent his wife, who is expecting a fourth child this month, to move out and asked her parents and sisters to have access to the children.

Judge Tracy Engelking rejected Boyle's claims in July.

Engelking entrusted Coleman with sole custody and allowed him to transfer the children to Pennsylvania, where his parents live, pending the results of the custody battle.

Boyle is currently on bail pending a separate criminal trial for alleged assault charges after the family was rescued in Pakistan and returned to Canada last October.

Boyle denies any wrongdoing and the charges have not been tried in court.