At the beginning of my Impromptus today, I mention the Iranian government, and its practice of targeting exiles for kidnapping, and worse. My friend Masih Alinejad has been such a target for years. (For my 2021 piece on her, go here.) Another journalist and activist, Ruhollah Zam, wound up dead in 2020. He had found refuge in France.
The Turkish government is infamous for this practice, too. It has an agency with an unblushing, straightforward name: “Office for Human Abductions and Executions.” This is a very busy office, and a very nasty one. (I wrote about it in a 2019 piece, “Whisked Away.”)
Today, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation has come out with the following bulletin:
Two days after the anniversary of the National Security Law (NSL), the Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants and HK$1 million bounties for eight prominent Hong Kong activists who reside in the US, UK and Australia.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Nathan Law, Kevin Yam, Ted Hui, Dennis Kwok, Anna Kwok, Finn Lau, Christopher Mung and Elmer Yuen. Their “crimes” include meeting foreign politicians, attending hearings, establishing pro-democracy organisations, participating in media interviews and publishing social media posts.
These are brave and noble people, who should be protected in free countries. In 2021, I did a podcast with Nathan Law (here). He had fled Hong Kong in the summer of 2020, when the National Security Law was announced. To imagine a bounty on his head now — and on the heads of the others. At the Oslo Freedom Forum last month, I saw Masih Alinejad, who has “no fixed address,” to put it mildly. Always, there is this shadow, this threat, hanging over her.
Imagine living that way. Yet Masih does, and so do many others.
The world is filled with nasty regimes. Sometimes leaving — going into exile — is not enough to get away from them. The victims of the Iranian, Turkish, Chinese, Russian, Saudi, Cuban, and other regimes could testify to that.