Criminal Code Act 1995

Schedule - The Criminal Code  

Section 3

CHAPTER 8 - OFFENCES AGAINST HUMANITY AND RELATED OFFENCES  

Division 268 - Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against the administration of the justice of the International Criminal Court  

Subdivision D - War crimes that are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions  

SECTION 268.34   War crime - taking hostages  

(1)    
A person (the perpetrator ) commits an offence if:

(a) the perpetrator seizes, detains or otherwise holds hostage one or more persons; and

(b) the perpetrator threatens to kill, injure or continue to detain the person or persons; and

(c) the perpetrator intends to compel the government of a country, an international organisation or a person or group of persons to act or refrain from acting as an explicit or implicit condition for either the safety or the release of the person or persons; and

(d) the person or persons are protected under one or more of the Geneva Conventions or under Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions; and

(e) the perpetrator knows of, or is reckless as to, the factual circumstances that establish that the person or persons are so protected; and

(f) the perpetrator ' s conduct takes place in the context of, and is associated with, an international armed conflict.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 17 years.

(2)    
Strict liability applies to paragraph (1)(d) .