Australia Urged to Sanction Regimes That Engage in ‘State Hostage Taking’

‘If there’s state hostage taking, that should be one of the criteria for sanctioning people,’ said the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign founder.

An alleged detention facility in northwestern Xinjiang region, China, on July 19, 2023. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Australia should use the Magnitsky Act to sanction foreign officials involved in detaining Australians as political hostages, a global justice campaigner has urged.

“There’s a lot more state hostage-taking [in] countries like Iran and China and others which are using law enforcement to effectively kidnap people and hold them hostage,” William Browder, the founder of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, told a parliamentary inquiry.