While you're listening to this podcast, we wanted to include a word from our

sponsor, the Human Rights Foundation, with a mission of standing up to authoritarian regimes worldwide.

What sets HRF apart is its singular focus on challenging dictatorships.

With more than 5 billion people living under authoritarian regimes today, their

mission is more critical than ever.

From Syria to North Korea to Russia, HRF fights for the rights of the oppressed.

They believe that when they rise, tyranny falls.

Join HRF in their mission to advance for freedom and democracy at H.R.F.org today.

A bit more than a year ago, I was put in touch with a person I never met, a woman named

Anayis Kanimba. I'm a Washington journalist, and so it's not unusual for people to just reach out.

Usually it's government spokespeople or experts or lobbyists.

Anais was a little different.

Her father was this legendary human rights activist who was imprisoned in Rwanda.

By the time we got connected, this was in 2023,

he had been locked up for nearly two years.

He had initially been held in a secret facility and said he was tortured.

President Joe Biden's team and the State Department were working on his case.

I cover the State Department, which is how we got connected.

I'd been following her father's case since I first learned about the bizarre

circumstances around how he was imprisoned. Through it all, Onaisin her family were worried that the United States wasn't doing enough, that she might never see her father again.

For over two years, she'd been spending every minute of every day trying to get him released.

The best way I could explain to somebody is I imagine you have something worrying you

...