Episodes

Paul Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and US permanent resident, is a recipient of the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has been credited with saving 1,200 lives during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Paul’s acts of extraordinary courage inspired the Hollywood movie, Hotel Rwanda. Paul left Rwanda in 1996 fearing for his safety, and later became increasingly critical of the Rwandan government’s human rights violations. He then founded an opposition political party called the Party of Democracy ...

American citizen, Tomeu Vadell from Lake Charles, Louisiana has been unjustly detained in Venezuela since November 2017. He works for US-based oil company, Citgo and was detained with 5 of his colleagues. Collectively, they’re known as the Citgo 6. The US government has called on Venezuela to release them immediately. Since earlier this year, the Citgo 6 have been on house arrest. Yesterday, all 6 of them were taken back to prison by Venezuelan authorities. Tomeu Vadell’s family believe this is ...

The detention and recent release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have alerted the world to China’s hostage diplomacy. American citizen Kai Li from New York has been unjustly detained in China since September 2016. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has stated that his detention is arbitrary and has called on the Chinese government to release Kai Li immediately. Kai Li’s family believe that he is being held as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the U...

On 16 October 2020, 66 year old German citizen, Nahid Taghavi decided to go for a walk near her apartment in Tehran. It was a week after she had surgery and Nahid had high blood pressure. Within moments, she was surrounded by 12 armed men from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also known as the IRGC. She was arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison where she remains to this day. Shortly after Nahid’s arrest, the German government updated their travel advisory warning German ci...

In June 2019, French academic Roland Marchal decided to fly to Iran to spend a six day holiday with his partner. Within moments of landing in Iran, Roland was arrested at the airport by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. He was taken to the notorious Evin prison where he would spend the next nine and a half months. On 20th March 2020, Roland was freed and flown back home to France in a prisoner swap deal between France and Iran. This is an example of Iran’s hostage diplomac...

Today marks 1,000 days since Paul Whelan, an American citizen and former US Marine has been unjustly detained in Russia. US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Congress have all called on Russia to release Paul and allow him to return home to his family in Michigan. Paul’s family believe he is being held by the Russian FSB as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the United States. This would be hostage diplomacy. We speak to Paul’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan to find...

The US government have stated that Tomeu Vadell, an American citizen, has been wrongfully detained in Venezuela since November 2017 and have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release him unconditionally. Tomeu Vadell is one of the Citgo 6 and his family believe he is being used as a bargaining chip by the Venezuelan government to extract concessions from the United States. Tomeu is a husband, a father and now a grandfather from Lake Charles, Louisiana. We speak to his daughter, Veronica Va...

Trevor Reed is an American citizen and former US Marine unjustly held in Russia since August 2019. America may appear divided on many issues but when it comes to Trevor, the White House, State Department, Senate and House of Representatives have all called on Russia to release Trevor immediately and allow him to come back home to Texas. We speak to Trevor’s parents, Joey and Paula Reed on what happened to Trevor and where he is now, Trevor’s time in the US Marine Corps which included guarding Pr...

Two former UK Foreign Secretaries and the current UK Foreign Affairs Committee Chair have called Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British citizen and mother unjustly detained in Iran since 3 April 2016 – a hostage. Nazanin’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe talks to us about his campaign to free his wife and what we can do to help reunite his family. We discuss how and why Nazanin was taken, the outstanding 400 million debt UK owes Iran, seeking help from the United Nations, deciding to go public, the Fre...