The United States on Thursday sanctioned alleged human rights abusers in Russia, Yemen and Haiti including Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the leader of Russia's Muslim-majority Chechnya region and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement, the US Treasury said in addition to Kadyrov it had sanctioned six companies registered in Russia as well as five individuals, all of which have close ties to him. It also sanctioned three individuals in Haiti for alleged human rights abuses as well as five people connected to Yemen's Houthi-controlled security and intelligence agencies.
Most were blacklisted under Executive Order 13818, which implements the US Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, freezing any assets under US jurisdiction and threatening non-US actors with blacklisting for dealing with them.
The US Treasury said in a statement that in addition to Kadyrov, the head of Russia's Muslim-majority Chechnya region, it had sanctioned six companies registered in Russia, as well as five individuals, all of which have close ties to him.
The Treasury identified the six companies as Absolute Championship Akhmat, Akhmat MMA, FC Akhmat Grozny, Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, Megastroyinvest and Chechen Mineral Waters Ltd. It named the five individuals as Vakhit Usmayev, the deputy prime minister of Chechnya, as well as Timur Dugazaev, Ziyad Sabsabi, Daniil Vasilievich Martynov, and Satish Seemar.
The US also sanctioned three people in Haiti - Jimmy Cherizier, Fednel Monchery and Joseph Pierre Richard Duplan - for alleged involvement in a November 2018 attack in the neighborhood of La Saline in which at least 71 people were killed, over 400 houses destroyed and at least seven women were raped by armed gangs.
The Treasury said it was also blacklisting five people tied to Houthi-controlled security agencies in Yemen whom it accused of serious human abuses: Sultan Zabin, Abdul Hakim al-Khaiwani, Abdul Rahab Jarfan, Motlaq Amer al-Marrani and Qader al-Shami.
In addition, the US State Dept. also announced sanctions against 17 officials of China and other foreign governments, as well their immediate family members, for serious human rights violations.
The designations include individuals from El Salvador and Jamaica, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement, adding that the Chinese individual was sanctioned for involvement in 'gross violations of human rights' of Falun Gong practitioners.