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President Joe Biden on Tuesday paved the way for sanctions against governments that wrongfully detain Americans, ordering more detailed travel warnings after a string of high-profile arrests.
Biden signed an executive order billed as expanding the toolbox for the US government in what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a “relentless” attempt to free citizens overseas.
“When Americans are captured abroad, we must do everything in our power to secure their release,” Blinken said in a statement.
The move comes after widespread media coverage of the jailing in Russia of basketball star Brittney Griner on drug charges, whose wife initially said Biden hadn’t done enough.
The executive order authorizes government agencies to impose financial sanctions or travel bans on foreign officials or non-state actors involved in the wrongful detention of Americans.
“The use of sanctions may not always help secure an individual’s release, so we will use this power judiciously and strategically,” a US official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“But the families of the detainees know their loved ones’ cases best, and we intend to hear from them, hear their good ideas and listen to their recommendations,” he said.
The State Department will also begin in its travel advice for Americans to highlight which countries are at increased risk of wrongful detention.
The first group of nations to carry a “D” sign for detention risk will be China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, another official said.
Successive governments have made the plight of prisoners and hostages a top priority.
Despite rising tensions surrounding the Ukraine war, the Biden administration in April arranged with Russia to swap Trevor Reed, an ex-Marine detained while intoxicated for allegedly assaulting police, for a Russian pilot imprisoned on drug smuggling charges was convicted.
In Iran, the Biden administration has insisted it cannot revive a languishing nuclear deal without releasing imprisoned Americans.
One of them, Siamak Namazi, a businessman convicted on charges of trying to overthrow the clerical state, recently spoke out from prison and called on Biden to secure his freedom regardless of nuclear diplomacy.
At least 11 Americans are known to be being held in Venezuela, although two others were released in March after infrequent US contacts with President Nicolas Maduro, a left-wing leader deemed illegitimate by Washington.
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