BRUSSELS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The European Union has imposed sanctions on a new group of eight individuals suspected of serious human rights violations and of undermining the rule of law in Russia, the Council said on Monday in a statement.
The individuals are members of the judiciary responsible for sentencing prominent Russian activists on what the EU described as politically motivated charges and heads of penal colonies where political prisoners - such as Aleksei Gorinov and journalist Maria Ponomarenko - were held in inhuman and degrading conditions, the statement said.
Sanctions require unanimous approval by the 27 EU foreign ministers.
EU member states first adopted human rights-related sanctions against a group of Russian officials in 2024 in response to the deterioration of the human rights situation in the country in the context of the aggression against Ukraine.
So far, 72 individuals have been targeted, including members of the judiciary, Ministry of Justice officials, and senior figures within Russia's prison network.
The eight people who were added to the list on Monday include Aleksei Vasilyevich Valizer, head of a penal colony, and Anton Vladimirovich Rychar, head of a pre-trial detention centre, and St Petersburg judges Eva Alexandrovna Giunter and Andrey Pavlovich Shibakov.
Under the sanctions, they are banned from travelling to or transiting through the EU, their assets are frozen, and EU citizens and companies are prohibited from making funds available to them.
EU foreign ministers met on Monday in Brussels to discuss a 20th sanctions package targeting the Russian authorities more broadly, potentially covering sectors such as energy and metals.
But Hungary looked set to carry out a threat to block the sanctions and a huge loan for Kyiv, on the eve of the war's fourth anniversary.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Inti Landauro, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Ros Russell)
