unlawful detention
Wrongful holding captive
Unlawful detention is the holding of a person without legal authority or justification.
It covers situations ranging from police holding someone beyond permissible limits to kidnapping by private individuals.
The term appears in criminal law, civil rights complaints, and international human rights contexts: The court ruled his unlawful detention violated due process.
False imprisonment is a near-synonym in civil law.
- habeas corpusWrit challenging lawful custody
- tortureDeliberate infliction of suffering
- black siteSecret extrajudicial detention facility
- secret prisonUndisclosed detention facility
- forced disappearanceState-concealed detention or killing
false imprisonment · held without charge · legal limbo · internment camps · prisoner of conscience · cell · fear · kidnapping · coercive control · guard · wrongful arrest · abduction · solitary confinement · political purges · rendition · human trafficking · abuse of power · judicial oversight
- imprisonmentprison, jail, prisoners, cells, captivity
- military scandalsAbu Ghraib, Iran-Contra, Pentagon Papers, torture, cover-ups
- rights abusestorture, ethnic cleansing, political prisoners, disappearances, human trafficking
- captivity crimeskidnapping, abduction, false imprisonment, hostage-taking, human trafficking
- detention rightshabeas corpus, remand, police custody, bail hearing, bond hearing
- Kidnappingkidnapping, hostage, captive, ransom note, kidnapper
unlawful detentionfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · release · free movement · at liberty · emancipation