# Taking of Hostages Act 1982, Section 1: Hostage-taking.


(1) A person, whatever his nationality, who, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere,—
(a) detains any other person (“the hostage”), and
(b) in order to compel a State, international governmental organisation or person to do or abstain from doing any act, threatens to kill, injure or continue to detain the hostage,
commits an offence.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for life.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/28/section/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/taking-of-hostages-act-1982/section-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.