At the beginning of my Impromptus today, I mention Iran, and the practice of its government of targeting critics abroad — Iranian critics — for kidnapping, repatriation, and murder. My friend Masih Alinejad has been such a target. (For my 2021 piece on her, go here.) Another journalist and activist, Ruhollah Zam, wound up dead in 2020. He had found refuge in France.

Turkey is infamous for this practice, too. Its government has an agency with a straightforward name: “Office for Human Abductions and Executions.” It is a busy, busy office, and a most nasty one. (I wrote about it in a 2019 piece, “Whisked Away.”)

Today, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation has come out with the following bulletin:

Two days after the anniversary of the National Security Law (NSL), the Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants and HK$1 million bounties for eight prominent Hong Kong activists who reside in the US, UK and Australia.

Arrest warrants have been issued for Nathan Law, Kevin Yam, Ted Hui, Dennis Kwok, Anna Kwok, Finn Lau, Christopher Mung and Elmer Yuen. Their “crimes” include meeting foreign politicians, attending hearings, establishing pro-democracy organisations, participating in media interviews and publishing social media posts.

These are brave and noble people, who should be protected in free countries. In 2021, I did a podcast with Nathan Law (here). After his arrest and imprisonment in Hong Kong, he was able to go abroad in the summer of 2020. To imagine a bounty on his head now — and on the heads of the others. At the Oslo Freedom Forum last month, I saw Masih Alinejad, who has “no fixed address,” to put it mildly. Always, there is this shadow, this threat, over her head.

Imagine living that way. Yet Masih does, and so do many others.

The world is filled with nasty regimes. Sometimes leaving — going into exile — is not enough to get away from them. The victims of the Iranian, Turkish, Chinese, Russian, Saudi, Cuban, and other regimes could testify to that.