UK unveils sanctions against human rights abusers, including individuals involved in Khashoggi murder

The British government on Monday identified 49 individuals and organizations in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Myanmar and North Korea to be sanctioned under a new regime targeting people who violate human rights.

The sanctions will target 25 Russian nationals the U.K. says were involved in the mistreatment and death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and 20 Saudi nationals held to be involved in the death of journalist Kamal Khashoggi, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The measures include asset freezes and travel bans and represent the first time the U.K. will alone name and penalize individuals and organizations accused of human rights abuse.

Addressing parliament, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said: "The first designations will cover those individuals involved in the torture and murder of Magnitsky, the lawyer who disclosed the biggest known tax fraud in Russian history.

"The designations will also include those responsible for the brutal murder of the writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi," Raab said. The sanctions will also target the systematic killing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the use of forced labor in North Korea, he added.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the Saudi Arabian consulate on Oct. 2, 2018, in Istanbul where he went to obtain marriage-related documents. His body was never found.

Initially denying and later downplaying the incident as an accidental killing in a fistfight, almost three weeks after the disappearance, Riyadh finally admitted that Khashoggi was murdered in a premeditated action but denied any involvement of the royal family.

The incident was blamed on lower-level officials. A Saudi public prosecutor's spokesman said that 21 Saudis had been taken into custody over the case, 11 of whom had been indicted and referred to trial. The prosecutor has said that the authorities were seeking the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects.

A Turkish court on Friday began trying 20 Saudi nationals in absentia over the Khashoggi murder. Istanbul's Heavy Penal Court No. 11 heard arguments of Khashoggi's fiance, Hatice Cengiz and some other witnesses.