Just one day after the United States announced sanctions against another 50 individuals and institutions, the country’s legislature has put a bill on the table that could affect several former Hungarian government officials, news portal Index reports.
The paper quotes the Hungarian language news service of Radio Free Europe, whose U.S. correspondent writes that if the U.S. Congress passes a bill focusing on corruption, it will affect several former Hungarian government officials, and individuals close to the government could be placed on a visa ban list.
The bill, which has been in the pipeline since last fall, invokes Section 7031(c) of the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Operations and Related Programs Act 7031(c), which provides that officials of foreign governments and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States if the State Department has credible information that they have engaged, directly or indirectly, in serious corruption and/or serious human rights abuses, Free Europe reported.
The latest sanctions imposed amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine include the Budapest-based International Investment Bank, as well as its Hungarian vice president, Imre Laszlóczki, who previously worked as a diplomat.
Former Slovak prosecutor general, Dobroslav Trnka, was previously placed on a similar visa ban list in 2021, thanks to passage 7031(c). And in early April, four Georgian chief justices close to the ruling party were banned from the United States.
In 2014, the United States banned six Hungarian officials, including then Tax Office President Ildikó Vida from entering the country, relying on Presidential Proclamation 7750, which reserves the right “to suspend entry as immigrants or nonimmigrants of persons engaged in or benefiting from corruption.”
