OFAC is designating Alpha Conde (Conde), the former President of Guinea, who was ousted in a coup d’etat in September 2021. Under his presidency, security forces engaged in violence against supporters of Conde’s opposition leading up to a March 2020 constitutional referendum that enabled Conde to run for a third term. Violence against opposition members continued through and after the October 2020 Guinean presidential election.
In early 2020, Conde ordered ministers to create a police unit to respond to anti-Conde protesters, with violence if necessary. Reporting indicates that in 2020 the government arbitrarily arrested and detained opposition members. Around the October 2020 Guinean presidential election, security forces used excessive force to disperse opposition supporters. Among other incidents, security forces reportedly fired live bullets into crowds that had gathered to celebrate the victory announcement of Conde’s opposition and shot two minors, killing one, and shot another in the back as he ran away. After the October 2020 election, security forces reportedly killed over a dozen individuals, including individuals killed at close range who presented no immediate danger to the security forces.
Conde is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is or has been a leader or official of an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse relating to his tenure.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
