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ARTICLE · 17 JULY 2023

OFAC Issues 'Hostages And Wrongful Detention Sanctions Regulations'

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On July 11, 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Hostages and Wrongful Detention Sanctions Regulations (Regulations).

United StatesInternational Law
Jacques Semmelman
Jacques Semmelman
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On July 11, 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Hostages and Wrongful Detention Sanctions Regulations (Regulations). The Regulations were issued pursuant to Executive Order 14078 (E.O. 14078), signed by President Biden July 19, 2022 – a full year earlier – which had determined that terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors who take hostages for financial, political, or other gain, and foreign states that engage in the practice of wrongful detention, including for political leverage or to obtain concessions from the United States, constitute a threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.

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