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US sanctions two MIA officials

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned two Georgian officials from Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, citing the ‘brutal crackdowns on media members, opposition figures, and protesters — including during demonstrations throughout 2024’. The officials are being sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act, and come after two other Georgian Interior Ministry officials were sanctioned in September.

The two officials now under sanctions are Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri and a Deputy Head of the Special Task Department, Mirza Kezevadze, who oversaw the ‘violence perpetrated by the Special Task Department’, including through ‘brutal beatings of peaceful protesters’.

‘In the wake of Georgia’s election, key officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs engaged in a severe and vicious crackdown against their own people, including the intentional targeting of journalists and use of violence’, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said. ‘The United States remains committed to holding accountable those who seek to limit the rights of their citizens and undermine fundamental freedoms — in Georgia and around the world’.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of Gomelauri and Kezevadze that are in the US or in the possession or control of a US citizen are blocked. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50% or more by either Gomelauri or Kezevadze are also blocked.

In addition, financial institutions, as well as individuals, that engage in certain transactions with Gomelauri or Kezevadze may ‘expose themselves to sanctions or be subject to an enforcement action’. According to the US Treasury Department, the prohibitions include ‘the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person’.

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