Eighteen US Democratic lawmakers have asked the Treasury Department and State Department to punish Israel-based spyware maker NSO Group and three other surveillance software firms for enabling human rights abuses.
In a letter [PDF] signed by US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), and 16 others, the legislators urge Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to apply sanctions to the NSO Group, UAE-based DarkMatter Group, and EU-based Nexa Technologies and Trovicor, under the Global Magnitsky Act.
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act was signed into law in late 2016 as part of the F17 Defense Authorization Act. It expands upon the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 which was drafted specifically to punish Russian officials for the 2009 death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who perished in a Moscow prison after investigating government fraud.
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Source: The Register