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i'm tom, a cry into ha, but the top stories on al jazeera sh, malaysia, the law house of parliament is voting to abolish the mandatory death penalty for crimes such as murder and drug trafficking. the bill seek to substitute the death penalty with life imprisonment as well as counting florence louis has more. the mandatory death penalty has been part of malaysians criminal justice system since the country was under british colonial rule, but it was originally enforced for murder, even after the country gained independence. it kept those laws. and then in the 1980s when malaysia strengthened its laws against drug, it made the death penalty mandatory for drug trafficking. but around the world in the last few decades, the conversation about death penalty and especially mandatory death penalty has been taking place and as greater understanding. but the mandatory death penalty is unjust. the leader of finland's right wing opposition national coalition party,

baterri or po, has claimed victory and closely for parliamentary election. current prime minister san marin has conceded defeat or pope will now be asked to form a coalition government clear alternative to the lead being problem. and people are very worried about the economy. have you have a good broker? i'm eligible, it's gonna be what kind of response b b goes to do when this was our message. we'll fix our country. and montenegro, former economy minister, yon kaufman toville has won the presidential run off. he secured 60 percent of the vote, beating incumbent mileage. you can overage on the presidential candidates. the small nation joins night started negotiations. you membership and moved away from russia . but his party is accused of corruption and links to organized crime. and other close result in bulgaria is election. it's 5th and 2 years with coalitions slid by

2 former prime ministers. less than one percent apart. exit polls put the pro width and block of reformist carol pet call from the lead. the center right block, lead by boy co bar, a soft is in 2nd place bow guerria is a member of the e, u and nato, but also has historical ties with russia. the russian military blogger who supported the invasion of ukraine, has been killed in a bomb attack at a cafe in saint petersburg. witnesses say of lovelyn to passkey was presented with a statue which exploded at least 25 people were injured in the blast. you cry and says 6 people have been killed by russians. shelling on the town in the east coast, the antenna, vic, 20 kilometers west of buck. mood has seemed fierce fighting in the last 8 months. as russian forces tried to capture the city, ukrainian official say dozens of buildings were damaged by the explosions. oil prices have surged off to saudi arabia and other producers from the pig plus the lunch announced production cups. they will come into effect from may bred,

says its precaution, re misha, to stabilize the market. the u. s. has opposed the counts saying the world needs lower oil prices to support economic growth. egyptian president, abdel father l. c. c. has paid a surprise visit to saudi arabia, crown prince mohammed, ben selman and senior government ministers welcomed him to jetta. sissy is aiming to improve relations with one of egypt, biggest allies and economic backers. israel's cabinet has approved the funding of the national guard, which has been requested by the far right. security minister them are being given is it's critical and the fight against what he calls terrorism. you is secretary of state anthony blinking has called for the immediate release of american journalist in guest coverage during a call with the russian foreign minister circ lever of cosca, which is a correspondent with the wall street journal. he was detained on thursday on allegations of spying accord, and l tyria has sentence prominent journalist o son l, cardi to 3 years in prison. he is the director of my agree that emergent news.

coffee is accused of receiving foreign funds through his business and exchange for carrying out activities that could harm the state. with us is pricing for more extreme with of this week. at least 26 people died when tornadoes ripped through the midwest and southern us on friday, followed by severe storms the weekend wither. officials say another storm system is expected to hit on tuesday and on wednesday though, said headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera. after the bottom line, which is coming up next. ah, i am steve clements and i have a couple of questions after the release of a prominent rwandan activists. what was the us role, and what is the white house doing to bring back the dozens of other americans still detained abroad? let's get to the bottom line. ah,

you could almost hear a sigh of relief, both in africa and the united states when paul recess to begin. it was recently released from jail by rwanda's president paul crick. i'm a recessive begin. it is credited with sheltering more than a 1000 ethnic tutsis and hutus at the hotel. he managed, during rwanda's genocide, almost 30 years ago, were almost a 1000000 people killed each other in less than 100 days. the hollywood movie hotel rwanda from 2004 was inspired by his story. now he'll be moving back to the u. s. where he has permanent residency. and the news of his release was welcome by president joe biden. but one of the dozens of other american citizens in residence held by governments around the world and is the rising trend of detaining american citizens and residents by governments around the world becoming a national security issue. joining us today from the white house is joshua seltzer . the deputy homeland security advisor at the national security council. joshua, it's great to be with you. let me just start with the the big news paul recess of

beginner. is soon going to be back in the united states. joe biden's white house made this a priority. tell us how it unfolded. why was paul recessive again, a high priority item on president biden's to do list. steve, thanks so much for the chance to join you for this conversation. and i think the story actually begins before president biden's inauguration begins during the transition. when jake sullivan, among others, the incoming national security adviser directed a number of us to hit the ground running on day one when it comes to bringing home americans held abroad. and during that transition, he asked a few of us who had worked on these types of issues in the past in government to make sure we were up to speed on current cases. and there were cases like all recessive beginners that began before day one that we in a sense,

inherited as an administration some of that involve researching where those cases stood. some of it involved engaging with families and with those advocating for representing families. but it meant that when we got here to the white house on day one of the administration, this really could be a priority from the get go. now taking the story of it forward from there, as they indicated, a paul's case was among goes, we inherited as an administration and really from the outset, both publicly and privately, we indicated what an imperative it was to resolve this matter to resolve it in a way that reunited hall with his family here in the united states. and that removed what was clearly a bi lateral irritant in the u. s. rwanda relationship. that, as i indicated, took some forms that republicans took some forms that were private and took the form of the secretary of state's visit to college. in august of 2021. in which

of course this issue was raised. i think we really entered a new phase of resolving the matter when jake sullivan, the national security advisor started having some very constructive re quiet conversations with key officials in the role in government. and some ways we were able to make the heaven from simply indicating that this had to get resolved to talking through the how of the sequence, the steps that would be necessary to get from a situation that we all found unsustainable to the happy result today. maybe we can talk more about that, steve. in this particular case, this is different than brittany griner. this is different than paul whelan. this is different and i'm interested in someone in your role as you look at these cases, is there a template? are there things that we're not seeing that help you ah, move from one to case or is every once every one of them so extraordinarily different that, that you have to actually build a process that unique unto that case. i think there are some principles that apply

across cases, but then the recovery strategy, the tactics very case specific. let, let me tell you what i think some of those principles are. first and foremost, we committed as a government when the obama by the administration reviewed how we handle these types of matters to doing a better job in a number or specs. and one of those was making sure that families and loved ones feel informed and supported during these really horrific or deals that has to be a guiding principle across cases. how that applies is case specific. different families want more information at different times. they want it presented in different ways, but the fundamental of ensuring that those who have the greatest stake in these matters are supported and informed. that's a key principle. i'll give you a 2nd key principle, which is ensuring that those families are integrated as partners in recovery strategies. this was another outcome of that policy review almost

a decade ago in which we committed ourselves as a government to making sure that we were in discussions in dialogue with loved ones . not just sharing information on the cases, but also talking through what our recovery strategy was, what our back up was, how long we were willing to try a current course of action before thinking it might be time to pivot something else . and then i give you a 3rd principle as well, which is keeping this a priority across the u. s. government that begins here at the white house with president obama begins with our security visor, james sullivan. it applies to the secretary of state, of course, of the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the hostage recovery fusion sell at the f b i. but overall it takes leadership to make something a persistent priority. we built the structures almost a decade ago to get there. we have the leaders right now with the president, with jake, with the secretary of state. ah, who are ensuring that that is translating into results like the very happy results

were reaching here, welcoming paul back to the united states, back with his family. are there elements of this case that are relevant to others that are out there? that may not be in the news right now. i think all of the steve goes back to those conversations involving the national security advisor, james sullivan, and rwandan government officials in which we were able to make that pivot from simply saying, this must be resolved. this is unacceptable to quietly saying how, what steps can take us from here to there. and that involved, frankly listening and listening to the rwandan government as they explained what it was they were looking for from all what they were looking for from family, what they were looking for from us. and look, that's hard and that's, that's the type of why diplomacy that frankly, jake led from the highest levels of, of this government. sometimes over the phone. sometimes by literally sitting in his office that allowed us to work out a sequence in which we were able to say ok, if this is what the rwandan government is seeking from paul paul as

a individual is willing to provide that. what comes next? what does that look like? and they're wanting system. ok if he's released from prison, where does he go from there? and of course we had a another government. the government is katara that helped facilitate taking all the into their residence in kigali and then flying him after a couple of days to go as a next step. what does it look like for the family? of course the, the family gets to choose what it wants to do with its own private civil litigation . but ultimately, the family. we, as the u. s. government throw on the government, were able to synchronize the pieces in a way that got us where we all wanted to go, which was resolving this matter, removing it as the significant, bilateral, the retention was between 2 governments and of course reunited someone with his family that mr. so has copper become our pride of detain person partner in the world? the cutters are, is a critical partner, and we are obviously very pretty,

very appreciative for the role they played in facilitating this in a sense of their involvement in this matter. and in our efforts to resolve it, go back away. we did for this case, what we do for matters like this, which is in addition to engaging, in this case, the rollins directly. we also do talk to shared partners, mutual partners about how important this sort of resolution is to us as a government, as white house, as the state department, as a country. and the countries have been part of those conversations. thus, as we reached a point in which through that quiet diplomacy i've been talking about, we were synchronizing the steps, the elements of the rwandan process, even the logistics of what it meant to to get this matter, resolved to get paul from prison to somewhere else. and golly, from golly, to a 3rd country from a 3rd country to the united states, the countries proved a really important partner and they've been a partner on other things you've seen us see,

thank them publicly for their role in getting home other americans we have work very hard as administration to bring home and we are grateful for that sort of collaboration. i'm wondering, josh, if you see a worrying trend in americans that are detained. org or taken and held against their will in countries around of the world. and i guess my personal observation is this seems to be like an industry growing and that worries me as it were, you, it does were a, me, we, we do seem to be in a moment where there are governments across the world who are willing to do as you describe it to engage in practices that essentially treat human beings at times as, as political tools as, as bargaining chips. we've seen this obviously in venezuela, we've seen this in, in russia, in iran. we worked very hard as an administration to bring all americans from those

3 countries, among others, despite the fact that we think there should be no detention like that in the 1st place. that when the russians, for example, detained someone like brittany greiner, that it is designated by the state department, consistent with the levinson act in federal law as a wrongful detention precisely because that is the official stamp of the state department saying this should never happened in the 1st place, and we always want to be very clear about that. even as we do what we need to do, we owe our citizens what we owe their family members of resolving those particular cases. i think it's important to us as an administration, not just to recognize the trend that you're describing, steve in the thread it poses, but also to try to deter and prevent what would be the next generation of cases from arising in the 1st place. we've tried to do this in a few different ways. first of all, very early in his tenure, a secretary of state secretary blinking wouldn't us diplomatic weight behind

a canadian lad multilateral initiative, against arbitrary detention to try to strengthen the international norm against this sort of appalling practice. we've also had the, the president issue last summer and executive order the built on the 11th and act and generated new capacity for things like financial sanctions and visa bars against those deem to have engaged in hostage taking or wrongful detention of americans. a 3rd element also out of the state department, was the introduction last summer of the d for wrongful detention indicator. so this is applied to a limited set of countries in the world where we want americans to be very clear that they face a heightened risk of wrongful detention. should they make the choice to travel there, which of course, we urge them not to do already. the state department had warned about that risk in the, the language of their travel advisories. but making this even clearer with that d,

clearly a fix to certain countries we think can help to warn americans and thus prevent some cases from arising in the 1st place. i mean, we do have a graphic here, you know, showing that iran, china, venezuela, syria, russia, all engage in this practice. but that, what is really remarkable is in 2011 when you had an average of american for us nationals being taken a year. that number is going up dramatically and rather being non state actors. here we have for who $211.00 a year right now. and i guess the question is it's, it's great to hear about international norms in to warn people. but as you see, americans in every nation of the world, are there other steps that can be taken to create disincentives? ah, me for states doing this that, that, that may not be on my radar screen. yeah, and then we should just pause a moment. ed to reflect on dian foley, who's just contributed so much to this community of people who care about these issues and who turned obviously personal on family tragedy and to really

extraordinary work outside of government, but also work with government to keep the priority on resolving these cases and preventing future ones. and really it inspires a lot of us who work in this, in this area. and to your pointed to a point that, that she and others have rightly called attention to. we do think we can and intend to do more, to deter and by punishing deter future cases. so part of that executive order that i mentioned, part of the goal is over time as we build sanctions packages, often in conversation with those outside god. similar to how sanctions packages are built in the human rights context based on their input, their suggestions. um, as we apply the sort of penalties that, that executive order sets out an angel penalties, travel related penalties, it will show that there are costs to engaging in this sort of behavior, wrongful detention, and hostage dating of course, they're already sunk costs and there are criminal prosecutions lead, not of course,

out of the white house, but by our colleagues at the department of justice against individuals who take americans against their will in the department of justice in recent months announced publicly some charges against individuals in haiti who held a number of americans for months down there before we worked with our colleagues in federal law enforcement and others were able to help resolve that matter and, and get those 16 americans in their canadian traveling hardener safely released. so there are criminal penalties in certain circumstances and, and we're always grateful. and when those are federal, law enforcement are able to utilize those tools available to them. but the executive order i mentioned, as well as the, the name and shame aspect of this, the fact that we are talking about how polling it is as a practice to essentially treat human b things as, as bargaining chips as political tools. as paul's, all of us we think can try to contribute to rolling back those trends. you're describing, steve. now one of the other people just released was jeffrey would key if i'm

pronouncing his name correct. and niger it as part of a deal, it seems. and anthony, blinking secretary of state had visited that country as well, had it. but 2 other big names we've heard are paul whelan and russia. austin, ties perhaps in syria. are there any dimensions of these cases that you could talk about and whether there's potential progress or other cases and is visibility of these cases help or hurt all good questions and steve, about cases that are very much on our minds in the minds of leadership at the white house and state department and elsewhere, so maybe going to wiki 1st. we were very, very gratified and relieved to see a jeff emerge from over 6 years of being held as a hostage and in west africa. and we really are grateful. as we've said, as a government publicly, already to the government and the sheriff, which was a tremendous partner and working to secure his release. he is home in the united states with his family,

i would say more out of respect for his own privacy other than what a relief it is to see him out of captivity. many across united states government worked tremendously hard over the 6 plus years to try to use every tool at our disposal intelligence related tools, military tool, a law enforcement tools, diplomatic tools to reach the point we finally reached in the past week or so, which is seeing him released and seeing him hall, and that's tremendously gratifying to see it is always the nature of this business that even in one week as we celebrate and take a moment to, to celebrate the release of jeff with key all recess of the you know, we also know that there are others and we get back to work on those other cases and i will as you suspected, leave to private discussions are ongoing efforts to secure the release of all wheelin of austin ties and other americans held elsewhere in the world. but it is

worth emphasizing that sometimes the very best work can be done client, and it was years of work in a sense that resulted in would keys release in recess of gayness release and the type of constructive, careful, deliberate conversations. that for example, the national security advisor lead in the context of securing paul recessive again as a release that often happen only effectively when it's away from the spotlight. and when it's truly a private discussion, it's not, it's not pastoring, it's instead a genuine back and forth about how we start from a situation that we as a government find unsustainable and get to an outcome that's mutually satisfactory . josh, i will tell our audience that you are the founding executive director of something called the institute for constitutional advocacy and protection. it's always been a reminder to me that not every nation's constitution, not every nation's legal infrastructure is the same. and that an arrest

a conviction in a foreign country say egypt or saudi arabia or singapore, ah, may look on just to some americans are just as an arrest or conviction of a foreign national in us. courts can look unjust to those other countries. how much do we need to wave into this, this at your real expert in this area? and i want to be over the fact as we talk to a global audience here, that there are some around the world who look at the united states as a place that is wrongfully detain people from their perspective. how do we need to have, you know, some sort of alignment strategy when it comes to our laws around the world. so this is part of what is built into the 11th and act, the federal law that i mentioned earlier when it comes to how the state department is assigned by law to our colleagues. their assess americans when they are detained abroad. and i should emphasize that any american detained abroad is entitled to and

we do our best as a government to provide a basic set of services we hope to, to give them counselor access and we're very hard to deliver on that. we work hard to get them representation in court. if we wrapped, we work hard to ensure that they are treated by the standards of the local legal system. whatever those my thief, that's true for every, whether they are deemed or wrongful detainee or not. and they're decades of tradition behind that, but it's worth worth reminding viewers and listeners about that. then what the levenson acts formalized, i think quite constructively formalized, is another county, a very rare category, but a very important category, where the state department assess is based on 11 factors that are now set out and federal law. whether there is one more piece, which is that in addition to everything, i described that every american detained abroad is entitled to, the detention is so unlawful or wrongful in our eyes. the eyes of the state department that we take on one more responsibility,

which is to use the full tool box as best we can to try to bring that american hall . and we all knew this category existed before i. it had been written into some of the documents issued by president obama at the culmination of that hosted policy review in 2015 that we were talking about earlier steve. but i think what the levinson acted was signed into law by president trump in december 2020, 20. and it was to set out the factors and to formalize the process. and now you have within the state department, the relevant regional bureau. you had the consular affairs bureau, you had the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs right of carson's in his office. and you have the office, the legal advisor, all contributing into an analysis of whether the very specific, very particular facts and circumstances of a new detention of an american abroad. ah, qualify it as, as a wrongful detention case that can take time gathering those facts and

circumstances can take time. and sometimes we hear from families that they want to where they are in that process, understandably, but at the same time, you want that process to be careful to be deliberate, into evaluate the sort of complexities you, steve, are raising, which is these sorts of assessments. these sorts of evaluations need to be done against the backdrop of foreign legal systems to understand whether this treatment of a particular american, in a particular circumstances reaches that very rare. but again, very important category of being deemed a wrongful detention case. let me just ask you finally now that you and your colleagues and the us government, and your interlocutors in the rwandan government and also some in caught our have unwound the not that was surrounding paul recess. a begin as imprisonment. ah, is their enthusiasm between ro want in the united states and pushing reset and doing new things? look, i think every time we are able to work through with

a foreign government resolution like this, that is a good thing. it's a good thing for the american who comes home. it's a good thing for their family. it's a good thing for both governments because we've just worked through something quite hard and we removed, by definition, an irritant. in our relationship, he doesn't mean that all the things to talk about have been resolved. we always have other things to talk about with foreign governments. some of them constructive, some of them hard conversations, but the fact that a representative of foreign government can sit in our national security advisors office and begin to lay out pathway towards resolving something like this. that at one point looked essentially unresolved able and get to a day when paul returned to his family. that is a good thing in and of itself. and i think it does bode well for working through other heart issues. or it's a fascinating and important story. and we're very grateful you joshua seltzer deputy homeland security advisor at the national security council for sharing this background with us. thanks so much. thank you, steve. so what's the bottom line each and every case of an american citizen or

resident held by another government is really a different story. many become geopolitical chess pieces, like basketball star, brittany greiner, or international businessman, paul whelan in russia. she got out on a prisoner swamp, but he still in jail. paul recessive begin. i had a different story. he was an outspoken critic of the president of rwanda. and he was convicted in his country's courts on terrorism charges in the end, the u. s. government and his lawyers used for want his own clemency guidelines to secure a commutation of his sentence and get his release. so in this case, it's an opportunity to push reset on relations between kigali and washington and move forward. those are precisely the kind of diplomatic test moves the world needs to see more of. and that's the bottom line. ah o m o done at time is spirituality reflection

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