Former Hostage Calls on Australia to ‘Sharpen Its Tools’ Against Foreign Arbitrary Detention

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig—one of the “two Michaels” subject to arbitrary detention in Bejing in 2018—has told a Senate inquiry that Australia must “sharpen [its] tools to deny, deter and punish” the illegal imprisonment of its citizens abroad. Kovrig called for a tougher response to arbitrary detention and said measures could be as wide-ranging as diplomatic, information, economic, financial, intelligence, law enforcement, and even military responses. The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs is looking at the best response to deal with the wrongful detention of Australian citizens overseas. Australian citizens Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun were notable detainees of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—Yang still remains China—while economist Sean Turnell was detained in Burma, and journalist Peter Greste was jailed in Egypt. Cheng, Turnell, and Greste have since been released....