Tunku Varadarajan, a British Indian columnist based in the United States, sought the imposition of the Magnitsky Act Sunday on hardline Hindutva ideologues in India who “who call for religious violence [against minorities], discrimination or worse.”
The Act, which came into effect on December 14, 2012, initially aimed at punishing Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009, with sanctions including denial of US visa, besides freezing of their assets.
Over a period of time, the Act has authorized the U.S. government to sanction foreign government officials worldwide who are deemed to be human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S. under the Immigration and Nationality Act, denying them visas.
Sanctions under Magnitsky Act
In 2009, Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who probed a $230 million fraud involving Russian tax officials died in a Moscow prison after he was reportedly tortured and denied medical treatment.
His friend Bill Browder, an American-born businessman publicized the case after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and went on to lobby for the legislation to impose sanctions on culprits in the scam. Finally, the law was signed by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012, and in April 2013, the Obama administration made public a list of 18 individuals sanctioned under the Act.
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