Jonathan "Jon" Franks is an American advocate and public relations crisis consultant known for his work in securing the release of individuals held hostage or detained abroad. Franks has successfully advocated for the release of numerous Americans detained in various countries, working through public and private channels. Notable cases include: Andrew Tahmooressi, Michael White, Trevor Reed, Taylor Dudley, James Frisvold, [1] Ridge Alkonis, Savoi Wright, [2] [3] among others. Franks provides commentary to the media on cases of Americans held hostage, [4] [5] and hostage diplomacy. [6]
Before his hostage work, Franks worked in public relations and high-risk intervention with clients such as Montel Williams and James Woolsey. [7] [8]
In 2013, Franks advocated for the release of Andrew Tahmooressi, a U.S. Marine veteran detained in Mexico. Tahmooressi's case drew widespread media attention. [9] In 2019, Franks was also involved in the case of Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran. He served as a spokesperson for the family. [10] [11]
After Trevor Reed's arrest, Franks began collaborating closely with his family. Together, they orchestrated high-profile protests, media campaigns, and garnered political support. [12] [13] This collective effort led to an Oval Office meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and ultimately secured Reed's release from Russia in 2022. [7]
Witnessing the success of Franks' approach, other families of detained Americans sought his assistance. [7] Subsequently, Franks worked with these families to launch the Bring Our Families Home campaign merely a week after Reed's release. [7] The daughter of one of the Citgo Six expressed the belief that her father would not have been released without Franks's assistance. [7] U.S. Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger D. Carstens thanked him for his role in a separate release from Venezuela. [14] Neda Sharghi, the sister and advocate for Emad Shargi described Franks as a "game changer." [7]
Franks is known for his role as the spokesperson for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign. [15] [16] As the spokesperson, Franks has highlighted the cases of Americans wrongfully detained overseas. The campaign aims to raise awareness, apply pressure on the U.S. Government, and mobilize public support to secure the release of detainees. He has publicly advocated for Paul Whelan, [17] [18] Evan Gershkovich, [19] and Majd Kamalmaz. [20]
In 2023, Franks represented Taylor Dudley, an American Navy veteran, detained by Russia. Dudley was released in negotiations led by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. [21] [22] Franks also worked on behalf of Naval Officer Ridge Alkonis, detained in Japan for a fatal car crash. [23] Once transferred to the U.S., he advocated for Alkonis's release from Federal Bureau of Prisons custody. [24]
In 2024, Franks advocated for an American detained in the Turks and Caicos Islands for illegal possession of ammunition. The man was subsequently allowed to return to the United States with a suspended sentence. [25]
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout is a Russian arms dealer and politician. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle arms from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the nicknames the "Merchant of Death" and "Sanctions Buster" after British minister Peter Hain read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.
Nicholas S. Daniloff is an American journalist who graduated from Harvard University and was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union. He was briefly detained by Soviet security services on espionage charges, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
Brittney Yvette Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's national basketball team and a six-time WNBA All-Star. She was additionally named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Paul Nicholas Whelan is a Canadian-born former United States Marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship. He was arrested in Russia on December 28, 2018, and accused of spying. On June 15, 2020, he received a 16-year prison sentence.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian-British academic in Middle Eastern political science. She was employed as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute and has carried out research into contemporary political developments in the Middle East. The subject of her PhD research was post-Arab Spring Bahrain.
Morad Tahbaz is an Iranian-American businessman and conservationist. He was born in London and holds British citizenship. Tahbaz is a co-founder of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF). In January 2018, Iranian authorities arrested Tahbaz along with eight other PWHF-affiliated individuals.
Hostage diplomacy, also hostage-diplomacy, is the taking of hostages for diplomatic purposes. While common in the ancient world in modern diplomacy it is a controversial practice. Modern countries regarded as having engaged in hostage diplomacy include China, Turkey, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Roger Dean Carstens is an American diplomat and retired United States Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel. Carstens has served as the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA) since 2020.
Trevor R. Reed is a United States Marine Corps veteran who was arrested in Russia in 2019 for violence against a Russian police officer. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison. His arrest has been criticized as motivated by political purposes. Following his arrest, his family engaged in a public advocacy campaign in order to secure his release from Russia.
Kai Li is an American businessman who has been detained in China since 2016. The United States government considers Li to be wrongfully detained under the Levinson Act. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Li's detention to be arbitrary.
Bring Our Families Home (BOFH) is a campaign by family members of American hostages and detainees advocating for their immediate release. The James Foley Legacy Foundation claims that there are approximately sixty Americans who are being held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. The Foley Foundation provides support to BOFH.
On December 8, 2022, Russia and the United States conducted a prisoner exchange, trading Brittney Griner, an American basketball player, for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer. Griner, a WNBA champion star and Team USA Olympic athlete, had been convicted of smuggling and possession of cannabis in Russia earlier in 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Bout had been arrested in Thailand in 2008 and transferred to the custody of the United States, where he was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012. The exchange took place at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, following months of negotiations.
Marc Hilliard Fogel is an American schoolteacher who was arrested in August 2021 by Russian authorities for trying to enter Russia with 0.6 ounces (17 g) of medical marijuana. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Mark Swidan is an American who has been detained since 2012 in Jiangmen, China, and given the death penalty for trafficking drugs. In 2019, Swidan was charged with drug trafficking in China and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in Guangdong. On April 14, 2023, the Guangdong court upheld the decision to sentence Swidan to death.
Ridge Hannemann Alkonis is a United States Navy lieutenant who caused a fatal car crash in Fujinomiya in May 2021 that resulted in the deaths of two Japanese citizens. A Japanese court found Alkonis, who at the time was a weapons officer aboard the USS Benfold at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, guilty of negligent driving in 2022 and sentenced him to a three-year prison term. After only a year of imprisonment in Japan, Alkonis was transferred to US custody and released unconditionally shortly after.
Evan Gershkovich is an American journalist and reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering Russia. He was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service on charges of espionage in March 2023, marking the first time a journalist working for an American outlet had been arrested on charges of spying in Russia since the Cold War. The White House and media advocacy groups have condemned the arrest.
Alsu Kurmasheva is a Prague-based Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir Service. Kurmasheva was arrested in Kazan, Russia on October 18, 2023, and charged with failure to register as a foreign agent. The charge carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.
In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad is a non-fiction book by Mickey Bergman, co-authored with Ellis Henican, released on June 4, 2024. The book provides a detailed look into the secretive and high-stakes world of international hostage negotiations.
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