Mahmud al-Warfalli (al-Warfalli) serves as a commander of a militia known as the al-Saiqa Brigade. Al-Warfalli is designated for being a foreign person who is responsible for, is complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in serious human rights abuse. Since 2016, al-Warfalli has carried out or ordered the killings of 43 unarmed detainees in eight separate incidents. Many of these killings were filmed and published on social media. On January 24, 2018, al-Warfalli was filmed carrying out a mass execution of ten unarmed detainees in Benghazi. After al-Warfalli shot each detainee in the head one by one, al-Warfalli fired freely at the group of ten executed detainees. On July 17, 2017, al-Warfalli ordered the methodical execution of 20 kneeling and unarmed detainees. In several of the incidents, al-Warfalli continued to shoot at detainees after they were executed.
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.
