WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at deterring and punishing the illegal detention of U.S. citizens abroad by authorizing government agencies to impose sanctions and other measures.
The move came amid growing pressure on Biden from hostage families and detainees, most recently in the case of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February and is on trial. of drugs.
But some families said the order achieved little in concrete terms. They criticized the administration for not allowing them to ask questions during a video call Monday in which the action was previewed while saying Washington still did not have a solid strategy on how to bring their loved ones home.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
The plight of U.S. detainees has gained visibility following Griner’s arrest and the recent release of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed in a prisoner exchange with Russia at a time when U.S. relations with Moscow are at their worst in decades by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The United States does not provide an official figure on how many U.S. citizens are detained abroad, but the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named after an American journalist abducted and murdered in Syria, says more of 60 U.S. citizens are unjustly detained in approximately 18 countries.
Some are the main opponents of the United States such as Iran, Russia, Venezuela and China.
Biden pledged to “solve all these cases and … at the same time, start proposing a deterrent strategy that could increase the cost of hostage-taking and illegal detention,” a senior official said. the administration in a call with journalists. Monday.
The executive order authorizes agencies to impose costs and consequences, including financial penalties, on those involved in the hostage-taking.
“The sanctions authority included in this OE allows the United States to impose financial and travel sanctions on those responsible for unjustly detaining U.S. nationals, whether their captor is a terrorist network or a state actor,” he said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. a statement.
The order instructs government agencies to work more closely with the families of the detainees and to share information and possibly intelligence, U.S. officials said.
State Department travel warnings will add warnings when there is a high risk of illegal detention. On Tuesday, six countries – Myanmar, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela – will receive the warning.
“NOTHING CONSTRUCTIVE”
After the administration’s video call on Monday with relatives, several participants expressed disappointment at the content of the action and the way it was done.
“We made a record and asked the White House to relate to the families more directly and, once again, they made us a group call … and we ended the call with nothing constructive about our hostages,” Neda Shargi, German. by Emad Shargi, an Iranian-American businessman arrested in Tehran in 2018.
Shargi and others said there was no feature on the Zoom call that allowed them to ask questions or talk to U.S. officials. Several participants also said the action focused on deterring hostage-taking instead of establishing a strategy on how to take existing detainees home.
“It was more of a conference than a dialogue,” said Everett Rutherford, uncle of Matthew Heath, a U.S. Navy veteran imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly two years, adding that the content of the order was disappointing.
“This directive basically told the different parts of our government to do what they are supposed to do,” he said.
The Foley Foundation says countries that have unfairly Americans include Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates , Venezuela and Yemen.
The prisoner exchange with Russia in April that brought Reed home in the midst of the Ukrainian war has intensified calls from relatives of other people detained abroad for Biden to act.
Reed was released after three years in detention as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. Biden commuted the American prison sentence of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
Several weeks before Reed’s release, his parents met with Biden after protesting in front of the White House. Family members say they believe the road to liberation begins with a face-to-face meeting with Biden, a view the administration has tried to discourage.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Report by Humeyra Pamuk; Edited by Mary Milliken, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis
Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.