Washington-To arrest deported critics, Belarus did something other governments had never done before, using the threat of forged bombs and military jets in its airspace. A commercial aircraft landed in the capital Minsk.

The 26-year-old Raman Platasevic, an activist and blogger, was on the plane from Greece to Lithuania. When the plane lands He was detained..

Pratasevich was the editor-in-chief of the popular Telegram channel Nexta, which serves as a powerful medium for expressing dissenting opinions in Belarus. Platasevic was wanted in Belarus, on the list of suspected terrorists, and accused of fueling anxiety during last year’s protests against the controversial presidential election.

Since his arrest, Platasevic has appeared on state television and issued a widely-known statement under persecution. His family and human rights groups have pointed out the wounds and bruises seen in the video, stating that he has been beaten or abused.

File –This screen capture from a video released by Belarus’ state-owned ONT channel on June 3, 2021 in Minsk, Belarus, reacts to dissident journalist Raman Platasevic during an interview.

The incident has sparked global protests, with Western governments threatening to sanction key sectors of the Belarusian economy, and the European Union threatening to ban Belarusian planes from European airspace.

At the extreme, the Belarus case is not an isolated case. Authoritarian governments continue to look for ways to abduct and kill critics, journalists, activists, and opposition people living in exile.

The most vicious is the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden’s administration declassified an information report concluding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “approved an operation for capture or killing” in Turkey. [the] Saudi journalist. “

Nate Shenkan, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-author of the Freedom House Report. “Not out of reach, but out of sightThe government, which claims, is clearly in violation of international law to target critics outside its jurisdiction.

File-A friend of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi attended an event commemorating his second anniversary of his assassination in front of the Istanbul Consulate in Saudi Arabia on October 2, 2020, and posted his photo. I have a poster.

“It is clearly completely illegal to kill a person with extraterritoriality without going through judicial proceedings. It is completely illegal to kidnap someone, it is illegal to disappear someone, and then turn around and stranded. You can also … operate, “he told VOA.

Cross-border “abduction”

Ankara speaks frankly about the killing of Khashoggi in Istanbul, and in November last year he tried absentia from nearly 20 Saudi operatives who allegedly were involved.

However, Turkey, along with Belarus, Vietnam, Tajikistan and Iran, has succeeded in pulling back asylum seekers.

In some cases, journalists, bloggers and activists are kidnapped from the streets and forced to return.

Chun Doi Nya, who writes a blog for the Vietnamese language service of Radio Free Asia, a sister organization of Voice of America, fled Vietnam to Thailand in December 2018 and is the patronage of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. I was looking for.

A few weeks later, he was abducted near a shopping mall in the capital Bangkok and returned to Vietnam, said Canada-based daughter Doan Chuong.

In March 2020, Truong Duy Nha was tried in Hanoi and sentenced to 10 years in prison for deceiving the masses while working for a state-owned press.

The journalist’s daughter told VOA that he was forced to work and that COVID-19 restrictions did not allow family and friends to visit for months.

“My dad needs to work five days a week, with an hour lunch break from 7 am to 5 pm. His job is to make and weave baskets,” Truong said. I will.

Other asylum seekers, such as Tajikistan’s political activist Shalovidin Gadoev, who has been politically exiled to the Netherlands, are invited from exile with incentives.

Gadoev said he was invited to Moscow to meet senior officials in 2019.

It was a trap. “Instead of the meeting, I was kidnapped, beaten, and deported to Tajikistan,” he said.

“When I was detained on the territory of the Russian Federation, there was no procedure or delivery,” he told VOA by email. “It was abduction”

He recognizes freedom through the efforts of European and American governments and international rights groups.

In some cases, authorities may claim to threaten national security for extradition.

In March 2018, Turkish intelligence arrested six Turkish citizens living in Kosovo. They were returned to their home countries on suspicion of terrorism on suspicion of belonging to a grassroots movement led by the US-based Turkish priest Fethullah Gulen, who is listed as a terrorist by Turkey. Gulen has been accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016, but he denies it.

File –US-based priest Fethullah Gulen, found at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, July 29, 2016.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “No matter where they go, they will wrap them up and take them here.”

Freedom House’s Shenkan said Kosovo cooperated with Turkey by revoking residence permits “for national security reasons.”

“There is something like a fictitious legal process. I say fictitious because these people didn’t have the opportunity to see the grounds for their right to housing to be revoked because they disagree with it. Was not granted access to lawyers or lawyers, “he added.

Kosovo’s prime minister subsequently dismissed the interior minister and the head of the Secret Service for not explaining the arrest, Reuters reported in 2018.

More recently, Turkish state media released a photo of Gulen’s nephew Serahadin Gulen being handcuffed after being deported from an unnamed foreign country.

Those forced to return are often imprisoned or even killed.

Dissident journalist Roohollah Zam was in political asylum in France and ran the popular Telegram news channel Amado News. Iran said the website triggered widespread protests in 2017 and 2018.

In 2019, Zam was invited to Iraq with a promise of a famous interview. However, an Iranian agent kidnapped him, and authorities filed multiple accusations against journalists, including working with foreign intelligence agencies to spread fake news. He was executed in December.

Mr. Zam’s case was cited in a bipartisan resolution by US lawmakers last month for being charged with “corruption on earth” by journalists.

Recognizing the growing threat to press freedom around the world, the resolutions submitted by Republican Senator Marco Rubio in Florida and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez in New Jersey said, “Democratic Freedom of the press as a US priority in promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance, calling for the maintenance of an independent press center on soundness. “