BRUSSELS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The European Union has imposed sanctions on eight individuals suspected to be responsible for serious human rights violations and 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 describes as politically motivated charges and heads of penal colonies where political prisoners were held in inhuman and degrading conditions, the statement said.
The sanctioned people include Aleksei Vasilyevich Valizer, head of a penal colony, and Anton Vladimirovisch Rychar, head of a pre-trial detention center.
As part of the sanctions, they have been banned from travelling or transiting through the EU, their assets were frozen and EU citizens and companies are forbidden from making funds available to them, it added.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Inti Landauro, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout)
