Extraterritorial abduction, also known as international abduction, is the practice of one country abducting someone from another country's territory outside the legal process of extradition. Extraordinary rendition is a form of extraterritorial abduction involving transfer to a third country. Extraterritorial abduction with the purpose of bringing the person to trial in the abducting country is contrary to international law.[1]

By country

China

China abducts its citizens from e.g. Hong Kong or Australia, within its program of repatriating more than 3,000 people "who had escaped overseas".[2]

Czechoslovakia

During the first years of the Cold War until the 1960s, Czechoslovakia's secret service, the StB, abducted defectors overseas. One victim was the Social Democratic politician Bohumil Lausman, abducted from Austria in 1953 by Czechoslovak agents abusing diplomatic immunity.[3]

Iran

In October 2020, having lived in exile in Sweden for 14 years, Iranian-Swedish political activist Habib Chaab visited Turkey where he was abducted and smuggled to Iran.[4][5] Turkish security sources say Iranian intelligence was behind Chaab's kidnapping.[6]

Israel

Israel abducted nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from Italy in 1986 and Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960.[7]

Saudi Arabia

Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, and many other critics of the Saudi authorities have been abducted and then murdered or rendered against their will to Saudi Arabia since 1979.[8][9][10]

Turkey

Kosovo, Gabon, Sudan, the Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Malaysia, Switzerland and Mongolia: Turkish nationals connected with the opposition Gülen movement have been abducted and forcibly returned to Turkey without extradition proceedings.[11]

In March 2018, six Turkish nationals from Kosovo had been captured by Turkish intelligence and brought to Turkey over alleged links to schools financed by the Gulen movement. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speaking to supporters and party members in Istanbul: “Our National Intelligence Agency captured six of the highest ranking members (of Gulen’s network) in the Balkans in the operation it conducted in Kosovo,”[12]

United States

The first well-known American rendition case involved the Achille Lauro hijackers in 1985. After they were given a plane and were en route in international air space, they were forced by United States Navy fighter planes to land at the Naval Air Station Sigonella, an Italian military base in Sicily used by the US Navy and NATO. The intent was to bring the hijackers within judicial reach of United States government representatives for transport to and trial in the United States.[13]

In September 1987, during the Reagan administration, the United States executed a rendition, code-named "Goldenrod," in a joint FBI-CIA operation. Agents lured Fawaz Yunis, wanted for his role in the hijacking of a Jordanian airliner that had American citizens on board, onto a boat off the coast of Cyprus and taken to international waters, where he was arrested.[14]

The Reagan administration did not undertake this kidnapping lightly. Then-FBI Director William H. Webster had opposed an earlier bid to snatch Yunis, arguing that the United States should not adopt the tactics of Israel, which had abducted Adolf Eichmann on a residential street in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1960 ... In 1984 and 1986, during a wave of terrorist attacks, Congress passed laws making air piracy and attacks on Americans abroad federal crimes. Ronald Reagan added teeth to these laws by signing a secret covert-action directive in 1986 that authorized the CIA to kidnap, anywhere abroad, foreigners wanted for terrorism. A new word entered the dictionary of U.S. foreign relations: rendition.[15]

Vietnam

In July 2017, the former Vietnamese politician and businessman Trịnh Xuân Thanh was secretly abducted and kidnapped in Berlin by a group of unnamed Vietnamese personnel believed to be Vietnamese agents in Germany.[16] Germany expelled two Vietnamese diplomats in response.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Vervaele, John A. E. (2018). Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary Rendition. Oxford Bibliographies. doi:10.1093/OBO/9780199796953-0171.
  2. ↑ "Intelligence officials fear China's global 'kidnapping' program has reached America". theweek.com. 2018-03-29. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  3. ↑ "How Czech intelligence abducted Czech and Slovak émigrés in the first years of the Cold War". Radio Prague International. 4 October 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "Turkey detains 11 over abduction of Iranian dissident". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  5. ↑ "Turkey detains 11 over abduction of Iranian dissident - police". Reuters. 14 December 2020. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020.
  6. ↑ "Turkey says Iranian intelligence behind kidnapping of dissident Chaab". Turkey says Iranian intelligence behind kidnapping of dissident Chaab. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  7. ↑ Estrin, Daniel (2019). "The Doctor who helped Israeli Spies catch Eichmann but refuse recognition for it". npr. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  8. ↑ "Saudi campaign to abduct and silence rivals abroad goes back decades". Washington Post.
  9. ↑ Reporter: Reda al Mawy; Producer: Hugh Miles; Director: Mike Wakely (16 September 2017). "Kidnapped! Saudi Arabia's Missing Princes". BBC News Channel. BBC. BBC News Channel. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  10. ↑ El Mawy, Reda (17 August 2017). "Saudi Arabia's missing princes [updated October 2018]". BBC News. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Black Sites Turkey". 6 December 2018.
  12. ↑ Bytyci, Fatos (March 31, 2018). "Kosovo investigates seizure of Turkish nationals". Reuters – via www.reuters.com.
  13. ↑ Tom Clancy, Carl Stiner, Tony Koltz (2002), Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces. ISBN 0-399-14783-7
  14. ↑ Thimm, Johannes (2017). "From Exception to Normalcy: The United States and the War on Terrorism". SWP Research Paper: 38.
  15. ↑ Naftali, Tim (30 June 2005). "Milan Snatch". Slate.com. Retrieved 17 July 2010.
  16. ↑ "Slovakia threatens to freeze relations with Vietnam over kidnapping case". Channel NewsAsia.
  17. ↑ "Vietnam expels human rights lawyer, 2nd dissident to Germany". Associated Press. 8 June 2018.
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