Governments around the world are “reaching beyond their borders” to attack their own citizens abroad to crush dissent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday, urging more protection for them.
The New York-based rights group said so-called “transnational repression” was having a “chilling effect” on political criticism, and called on countries and international organizations to take action.
“Methods ... include killings, abductions, unlawful removals, abuse of consular services, the targeting and collective punishment of relatives, and digital attacks,” an HRW report said.
Photo: Reuters
Some governments have abused the Interpol alert system to “illegitimately target a national living abroad.”
The report details 75 cases of governments in more than two dozen countries — including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Belarus and Cambodia — carrying out “human rights abuses ... to silence or deter dissent” over the past 15 years.
BETTER PROTECTION
“Governments should dedicate resources to understand how transnational repression occurs on their soil and take needed steps to better protect those who initially came looking for safety,” HRW chief advocacy officer Bruno Stagno said.
The rights group said governments attack those living abroad that they deem a threat, including human rights advocates, journalists and political opponents.
This had a “serious chilling effect on the rights of freedom of expression ... for those who are targeted, or fear they could be,” it said.
HRW gave the example of the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, after he entered the Istanbul consulate to obtain travel documents.
Others have been abducted, such as Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich, who was arrested after his flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk in 2021, it said.
Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in jail, then “pardoned.”
TARGETING FAMILY
Countries have also attacked family members to coerce dissidents into silence, HRW said.
Police in Chechnya abducted the mother of Ibragim Yangulbaev, who runs an anti-government Telegram channel from abroad, and sentenced her to five-and-a-half years in prison, HRW said.
Some governments have abused Interpol’s red notices, which trigger a global alert enabling law enforcement to arrest a person before a possible extradition, it added.
In one case, Bahraini dissident Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali fled to Serbia after Bahraini authorities tortured him, HRW said.
However, after Bahrain sentenced him to life in prison following “unfair” trials, then issued a red notice against him, he was arrested and unlawfully extradited in January 2022, it said.
In another case, likely involving an agreement between Cambodia and Thailand to swap “foreign fugitives,” Thailand forcibly returned home Cambodian refugees Veourn Vesna and Voeung Samnang in 2021. They had links to the opposition.
Thailand earlier this month detained three more Cambodian activists.
Some countries have taken steps to counter transnational repression, including Australia and the US, HRW said.
Australian police launched a program to advise Australians on what to do if they think foreign governments are targeting them, and the US has passed legislation to counter the use of Interpol for political aims.
However, more needs to be done, HRW said.
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