BRUSSELS, 20 Jul. () –
The Member States of the European Union have approved this Thursday to sanction 12 people and five entities, including senior officials of the Moscow city administration, for violations of rights in the cases of imprisoned opponents Alexei Navalni and Vladimir Kara Murza.
Specifically, the EU accuses these people of arbitrary arrests and detentions, as well as violations or abuses of the freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, as well as inhumane treatment in Russian prisons.
Among the individuals sanctioned for Human Rights violations, is Natalia Sergunina, deputy mayor of Moscow, accused of using a facial recognition system as a tool of repression to detain activists and journalists.
Another of those indicated is Dimitri Nozhkin, head of the prison where Navalni is located and whom the EU holds responsible for the cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments of the opponent, who has spent more than a hundred days in solitary confinement since last August.
Among the entities that go on the blacklist, the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the city of Moscow and the Department of Information Technology for the repression of opponents, activists and journalists, as well as several technology companies for participating in the programs of face recognition.
Altogether, the EU maintains sanctions against 61 people and 20 entities, within the framework of sanctions for Human Rights violations, an instrument adopted at the end of 2020 to respond swiftly to flagrant attacks on rights around the world. Blacklisted individuals have their assets frozen and are prohibited from traveling to the EU as well as transiting through Union territories.
