Seimas to debate ‘Magnitsky act’

Sergey Magnitsky
AP / Scanpix

The Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs last month approved the respective amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens.

Under the version of the draft law endorsed by the committee, a foreigner would be banned from coming to Lithuania for up to five years if there are serious grounds to believe that he or she has committed a serious or very serious crime against a person in a foreign country and human rights and freedoms have been violated as a result of this, has committed a corruption offense or has been involved money laundering, or is on the national list of foreigners denied entry to a EU, EFTA and NATO member state.

A decision on banning entry to such a foreigner would be made by the interior minister at the foreign minister’s proposal.

“As a political sanction, individuals who have committed gross violations of human rights or corruption offences in other countries will be denied entry to the Republic of Lithuania,” Juozas Bernatonis, the committee’s chairman, told BNS last month.

“We believe that this poses a threat to our state,” he added.

The law would also allow not informing a foreigner about the decision to blacklist him or her if that would undermine the interests of state security, defense and public security and of prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences.

The United States in 2012 passed the so-called Magnitsky Act that imposed sanctions on a list of Russian officials believed to be responsible for human rights violations, banning visas for them and freezing their assets. Currently, there are over 40 names on the list.

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