The European Union should impose sanctions and export restrictions on Israel-based NSO Group over accusations that the company provided spyware to hack human rights activists and journalists, more than 80 human rights groups and other activists wrote to the EU. In a Dec. 3 letter, the groups said NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware was reportedly used to hack the devices of Palestinian human rights activists, “further evidence of a pattern of human rights abuses facilitated by NSO Group through spyware sales to governments that use the technology to persecute civil society and social movements in many countries around the world.” The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, pointed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s November decision to add NSO Group to the Entity List (see 2111030010). “The EU should follow suit and urgently put NSO on its global sanction list and take all appropriate action to prohibit the sale, transfer, export, import and use of NSO Group technologies, as well as the provision of services that support NSO Group's products until adequate human rights safeguards are in place,” said the letter, which was addressed to EU member states and Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief. The NSO Group didn’t immediately comment.
The European Union General Court on Nov. 24 dismissed an application from the European Political Subdivision of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to drop its inclusion on the EU's terrorist sanctions list. The ruling upholds the group's place on the sanctions regime and said the European Council could rely on the 2001 decision by the United Kingdom home secretary to list the LTTE because the U.K. government is a "competent authority" for the purpose of making the sanctions listing. The court also said that the EU had sufficiently backed the listing action in 2019-2020.
A host of countries aligned with the European Union's recent sanctions measures concerning the situation in Guinea, cyberattacks against the EU or its member states and Turkey's unauthorized drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, the European Council said. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned with the Guinea sanctions regime that extends to Oct. 27, 2022, the council noted Dec. 2.
The United Kingdom amended sanctions listings under its Russia and Syria sanctions regimes, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said Dec. 2. Russians Vladimir Andreevich Konstantinov and Petr Grigorievich Jarosh are still subject to an asset freeze, with slight modifications to their sanctions listings, OFSI said. Syrians Samir Izzat Qadi Amin and Samir Hassan remain subject to an asset freeze, with the statement of reasons on their listings updated, a notice said.
The Association of Certified Sanction Specialists recently added a blog post on the “Do’s and Don’ts of Sanctions Investigations,” detailing how firms should build their investigative teams, document the process, report findings and more. Sanctions investigations can be “hugely time-consuming and a major distraction from the day-to-day running of a business,” ACSS said, and companies should make sure they get the “balance right so that your investigation enables you to understand what went wrong, how to deal with the consequences and how to ensure it does not happen again.”
Ukraine has added 23 Russian nationals and five Ukranian citizens to its sanctions regime in a Nov. 18 decree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. All 28 individuals are reported to be employees of the Russian special services. For three years, the individuals will be banned from using their assets held in Ukraine, transferring capital, transporting goods or taking part in privatization auctions, the decree said, according to an unofficial translation.
The Commerce Department is seeking nominations for a new Industrial Advisory Committee on microelectronics research development, manufacturing and policy, the agency said this week. The committee, to be composed equally of representatives from the semiconductor industry, federal laboratories and academic institutions, will advise the administration on how best to maintain U.S. leadership in microelectronics manufacturing and support the semiconductor sector. The agency will accept committee nominations on an ongoing basis “and will be considered as and when vacancies arise.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 1 added three people and two entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List and deleted a range of other SDN entries. The additions are for Euclides Espana Caicedo, Hernan Dario Velasquez Saldarriaga, Nestor Gregorio Vera Fernandez, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People’s Army and Segunda Marquetalia. The State Department this week announced related terrorist designations (see 2111300029). OFAC also deleted a list of entries for people and groups with ties to Colombia and Venezuela. The agency didn’t release more information about the deletions.
Australia expanded its sanctions laws this week to create a Magnitsky-style regime that will allow it to more easily target human rights abusers, corruption and “malicious” cyber activities, the foreign affairs ministry said. The new rules, which were passed by the country’s parliament Dec. 2 and have been under review for at least two years (see 1912050026), will ensure Australia can “take timely action” with its allies “to impose costs on, influence, and deter those responsible for egregious situations of international concern,” the ministry said. The country will also be able to establish “further thematic sanctions regulations in the future,” the ministry added, including “in relation to serious violations of international humanitarian law.” The U.S. first passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012 and has since lobbied for allies to adopt similar sanctions authorities. The European Parliament, the United Kingdom, Germany and others have taken steps to adopt Magitsky-style sanctions (see 2106180009, 2009100015 and 2007060025).
The Biden administration plans to work closer with trading partners to tighten export controls around surveillance tools and other technologies used by authoritarian governments for human rights abuses, according to a Dec. 2 report in The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. hopes to work with a number of countries to establish a “code of conduct” on export licensing policies for surveillance goods, administration officials said this week, and will encourage information sharing on sensitive technologies that are used against political dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.