Repression of transnational dissidents

Forty-five years ago, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed in London with a poison-tipped umbrella as he made his way home from work. The horrifying case transfixed the British public.

So transnational repression is not new, including on British shores. But unless its target is unusually high-profile, or it uses startling tactics such as those employed by Markov’s killers — or in the attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal — much of it passes with minimal attention.

For political opponents, journalists, civil society activists and others, fleeing their homeland may offer only limited protection, even if they win recognition as refugees.

The veteran journalist Can Dündar survived an assassination attempt in Turkey and escaped to Berlin in 2016, but has faced threats even there: “I have to be careful about the coffee I drink, where I live,” he told the Guardian this week.

Last month, Pouria Zeraati, of the television channel Iran International, was stabbed outside his London home. Colleagues had previously been warned of credible threats to their lives. The suspicion is that the regime in Tehran hired proxies to assault its critics abroad. As protests swept the nation in October 2022, Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned international media to “watch out, because we’re coming for you”.

In We Will Find You, a report released earlier this year, Human Rights Watch noted : “Transnational repression is not new, but it is a phenomenon that has often been downplayed or ignored and warrants a call to action.” The U.S.-based notfor-profit organization Freedom House argues that the problem is actually spreading. While countries including Russia have long been associated with such activities, others have more recently been linked to high-profile killings and more general harassment.

The White House last week described reports that the Indian intelligence service was responsible for two assassination plots in the U.S. and Canada as “a serious matter.” On Friday, Canadian police charged three men with the murder of the prominent Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.