The human rights organization Amnesty International is to pay a fine of more than 7.5 million euros in India for financial crimes. The investigating agency said on Friday that Amnesty had violated foreign funding laws by using foreign donations to expand its local activities. The organization denounced a targeted “witch hunt” by the authorities against human rights activists.
The investigating agency said Amnesty India was fined $6.5 million for accepting illegal foreign donations. Former Amnesty director Aakar Patel is also expected to pay a further $1.3 million in fines. In connection with the investigation, Amnesty’s Indian bank accounts had already been frozen in 2020.
Critics have long accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of making life difficult for activists and non-governmental organizations with strict financial regulations and restrictions on foreign funding. In 2015, a year after Modi took office, the Indian government froze the bank accounts of the Indian branch of the environmental organization Greenpeace.
