On World Human Rights Day, which falls yesterday, the US State Department imposed sanctions on former officials, for their involvement in what it described as gross human rights violations.

The State Department stated in an official statement that the sanctions included Muhammad al-Otaibi, the former Saudi consul in Istanbul, for his involvement in the murder of his journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country's consulate in Istanbul. The statement described the crime as hideous and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

The United States has previously frozen Al-Otaibi’s assets on suspicion of having a role in the killing of Khashoggi.

On the other hand, the US State Department statement said that Aslan Eraskhanov, the former Chechen police chief, was sanctioned for his responsibility to execute 27 people outside the law, as well as his responsibility to hide dozens forcibly in Chechnya.

The US Treasury also imposed sanctions on the Libyan military commander, Mahmoud al-Warfalli, a former commander of the retired Major General Khalifa Hifter's forces, a decision that was welcomed by the Ministry of the Interior of the National Accord government.

The Treasury said in a statement that Al-Worfalli committed atrocities and serious human rights violations, including the killing of 43 detainees in executions, some of which were public and published on social media.

The International Criminal Court had issued arrest warrants for Mahmoud al-Warfalli, who is close to Khalifa Haftar, accusing him of committing "war crimes", and demanded that he be extradited more than once.

The US Treasury also imposed sanctions on six members of the "Allied Democratic Forces", an Islamist group that Washington calls "extremist" and is active in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The ministry's Foreign Assets Control office said that among those affected were the group's leader, Musa Balocco, and five others who helped the group through recruitment as well as logistical, administrative, and financial support, Bloomberg News reported.

It is noteworthy that the Congolese government and the United Nations have blamed this group for a series of attacks in the past few years, which have killed more than a thousand people since October 2014.