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• The lawmakers asked the departments to enforce Global Magnitsky sanctions
• If implemented, the sanction will freeze the bank accounts of the accused and put a travel ban
U.S. lawmakers are requesting the Treasury Department and State Department to enforce a sanction on Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and three other foreign surveillance firms citing that these companies helped authoritarian governments commit human rights abuses.
The lawmakers also asked for sanctions on senior executives of NSO Group, the United Arab Emirates cybersecurity company DarkMatter, and European internet surveillance companies Nexa Technologies and Trovicor.
The letter was sent late Tuesday and was seen by Reuters.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and 16 other Democratic lawmakers have signed the letter, Reuters reported.
Magnitsky sanction
The report mentioned, in the letter, the lawmakers said that the spyware industry relies on U.S. investment and banks and “to meaningfully punish them and send a clear signal to the surveillance technology industry, the U.S. government should deploy financial sanctions.”
The letter asked the Treasury Department and the State Department to enforce Global Magnitsky sanctions, which freeze the bank accounts and put a ban on travel to the U.S. for those accused of human rights abuses.
“These surveillance mercenaries sold their services to authoritarian regimes with long records of human rights abuses, giving vast spying powers to tyrants,” Wyden told Reuters.
“Predictably, those nations used surveillance tools to lock up, torture and murder reporters and human rights advocates. The Biden administration has the chance to turn off the spigot of American dollars and help put them out of business for good.”
Allegation on NSO Group
Surveillance firms have drawn increasing scrutiny from the U.S. government after a massive number of news reports have tied them to human rights abuses.
The letter said that these companies facilitated the “disappearance, torture and murder of human rights activists and journalists.”
In November, the Commerce Department put NSO on the Entity List, which prohibits U.S. suppliers from exporting software or services.
Apple also sued NSO Group last month, saying that it violated U.S. laws by breaking into the operating system installed on iPhones.
Picture Credit: The Guardian