Police detained a suspect’s wife to pressure his surrender instead of arresting him directly.

Evidence

But instead of arresting Abu Rami, the police followed Rami’s mother one winter morning as she made her way to Manhattan with three of her friends. Emerging from the subway, the women were swarmed by an army of officers and agents. Rami’s mother, frightened nearly to death, was transported to a holding cell in downtown Manhattan. Essentially kidnapping her, the authorities then instructed Rami’s mother to call her husband and advise him to turn himself in. Abu Rami quickly phoned an attorney and went downtown with his lawyer to surrender his body for that of his wife. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 830

Categorization

• XREF: Plausibly connects to the general treatment of family members held as leverage, mirroring kidnap-style tactics used by intelligence services elsewhere.
• QUESTION: Was using a family member as leverage to secure surrender a standard counterterrorism practice post-9/11, or exceptional?