Czechs pass bill aimed at foreign rights abusers

By : AFP

Date: 14 October 2022 3:15pm WAT

A health worker informs those waiting that the maximum of people to be tested this day as been reached, at a park where people are tested for the novel coronavirus on April 23, 2020 in Prague, as a research is conducted to evaluate undetected infections with the coronavirus in the population. - The Czech government on April 20, 2020 introduced a five-stage plan to ease lockdown measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, starting on April 20 and ending June 8. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)

Czech lawmakers on Friday passed a bill enabling the state to deny foreigners entry or freeze their assets if they have committed a serious crime or violated human rights.

The legislation, which must now be passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, is aimed at both individuals and companies.

The bill also targets terrorists or cyber criminals and authorises the foreign ministry to put identified perpetrators on the EU or Czech sanction lists.

“The Czech Republic will now have a tool against all who violate human rights, support terrorism or take part in cyberattacks,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in a tweet.

The bill is inspired by the so-called Magnitsky Act passed in the United States in 2012 and aimed at those suspected of having a role in the prison death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The Czech government originally expected to pass the law by the end of 2023, but its adoption was accelerated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.