Dear friend,

Welcome to our first Hostage Briefing of 2023. We hope you all had a great holiday break. We have a new episode out now with Peter Humphrey who is a British citizen, former fraud investigator and former journalist. Peter and his American wife were both wrongfully imprisoned in China in July 2013 for almost two years. Peter uses his experience as a journalist and walks us through his detention step by step in this detailed 3.5 hour interview which we highly recommend you listen to if you have a loved one wrongfully imprisoned in China.

Meanwhile, Iran continues its unacceptable practice of hostage diplomacy and you can find more details on this in our 'Hostage & Wrongful Detention News' section below.

New Episode Out Now

British citizen, Peter Humphrey used to be a fraud investigator and a journalist based in China. Peter and his wife who is an American citizen co-founded the company, ChinaWhys which was a risk-advisory firm based in Shanghai. In July 2013, both Peter and his wife were arrested by Chinese authorities. Their teenage son and only child was separated from both his parents. China is notorious for carrying out wrongful detentions especially when it comes to foreign nationals.

Both Peter and his wife were released almost two years later. Peter was released before his sentence ended due to poor health. Peter was sadly diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Denial of medical care by Chinese authorities during his imprisonment made his condition worse.

Peter and his wife now live in England. Since his release, Peter has been mentoring the families with loved ones wrongfully imprisoned in China. On this episode, we have the honour of speaking to Peter himself.

Using his experience as a journalist, Peter walks us through his imprisonment in China step by step in this detailed 3.5 hour interview. He talks about how he found the strength to keep on going and how he's coping now with his post-traumatic stress. We also discuss what the Chinese and British governments should do better. We end our interview discussing what international businesses, journalists and the public can do to help make sure this does not happen again.

Hostage & Wrongful Detention News

20 seafarers held hostage by Al Shabaab in Somalia since 2014 and 2018 freed

• The Hostage Support Partnership is a humanitarian group seeking to free forgotten hostages in Somalia and elsewhere. On 26 December 2022, the Hostage Support Partnership Twitter account tweeted the following: "We are happy to announce the release of 20 seafarers held by Al Shabaab since 2014 and 2018. The crews of the FVs Sudes and FV Meheran are now on their way home after a terrible ordeal. To those who helped with this a big thank you. Your bravery and perseverance paid off."
• On 25 December, Al Arabiya News reported that 14 Iranian fishermen seized by the al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia, some as long as eight years ago, have returned home according to news outlets in Iran. Based on this article, it is likely that the other six seafarers were Pakistanis.

Iranian IRGC arrest seven people with links to Britain including dual nationals

• On 25 December 2022, Reuters reported that Iranian state media claimed that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested seven people with links to Britain, including some who held dual nationality, over anti-government protests.

French-Irish citizen, Bernard Phelan held in Iran going on hunger strike

• On 3 January 2023, the Irish Times reported that 64-year old Bernard Phelan, a French-Irish national from Clonmel, Co Tipperary who has been imprisoned in Iran has gone on a hunger strike since 1st January. Bernard is one of seven French citizens currently detained by the Iranian regime.
• Iran is notorious for taking innocent foreign nationals hostage to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions from their home country.

Iran's judiciary indicts two French nationals and Belgian for 'espionage'

• On 3 January 2023, Reuters reported that Iran has indicted two French nationals and a Belgian for espionage and working against the country's national security.
• Again, we have to make it clear here that Iran is notorious for arresting foreign nationals on false charges and using them as bargaining chips to extract concessions from their home country. This is state-sponsored hostage taking also known as hostage diplomacy.

Kamran Ghaderi, Austrian citizen marks seven years being held hostage in Iran

• 2 January 2023 marked seven years since Kamran Ghaderi, an innocent father of three and husband from Vienna, Austria has been held hostage in Iran. Amnesty International and the European Parliament have called for Kamran's release.
• We had the honour of interviewing Kamran's wife, Harika Ghaderi just before the 6-year anniversary of his detention. If you haven't already, you can listen to that Pod Hostage Diplomacy interview here.

Danish-Bahraini prisoner of conscience, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja convicted and fined in two separate cases following an unfair trial

• ​Amnesty International UK has released an urgent action calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Danish-Bahraini prisoner of conscience, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja who was convicted and fined in two separate cases on 28 November 2022 following an unfair trial. The Bahraini authorities have long targeted Al-Khawaja for the peaceful exercise of his human rights and he is serving an unjust life sentence stemming from his role in the 2011 popular uprising in Bahrain.

How a secret message in a Colombian song gave hostages hope

• On 1 January 2023, the BBC published a story on how a secret message in a Colombian song gave hostages hope. With its catchy chorus and powerful lyrics, the pop song Better Days hit the airwaves in Colombia in the summer of 2010. But the song contained a hidden message in Morse code.

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Ways To Help

• Do your research before travelling abroad. Governments tend to have travel advisories in place however too many people do not check these travel advisories before travelling. If you work for a corporation that may send you abroad on a business trip, ask them what security measures they have in place to protect you from being wrongfully detained. The same applies if you are a researcher working for an academic institution, an athlete playing for a sports team or a journalist working for a news outlet. Hostage diplomacy doesn't happen to everyone but it can happen to anyone.
• Raise awareness of hostage diplomacy. Talk to your friends and family about it. Post about it on your social media channels. We need to stop focusing on individual cases thinking these are one-off incidents and realise that this is a growing practice among countries where almost anyone can be targeted.

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This newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with our work including the cases we're working on. If you haven't already, please do subscribe to this newsletter here. If you have any questions, you can get in touch here.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about hostage diplomacy and for showing the hostages and their families that they're not forgotten, that they're not alone, that there are good caring people out there who want to help.

Best Wishes,

Daren Nair

Creator & Host of Pod Hostage Diplomacy.