human rights organization Amnesty International should in India pay the equivalent of more than 7.5 million euros in fines for financial crimes. The investigative agency said Friday that Amnesty violated foreign funding laws by using foreign donations to expand its local operations. The organization denounced a “witch hunt” targeted by the authorities against human rights activists.

The investigative agency said Amnesty India had been fined $6.5 million for accepting illegal foreign donations. Former Amnesty director Aakar Patel is also expected to pay an additional $1.3 million in fines. As part of the investigation, Amnesty’s Indian bank accounts had already been frozen in 2020.

Indian government froze Greenpeace money

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.

A sedition case was opened against Amnesty in 2016 after the organization exposed alleged human rights abuses in the disputed region of Kashmir. In 2018, investigators raided Amnesty’s office in Bangalore. Internal documents from the organization were later leaked to the media, according to Amnesty.

“It has become common for the Indian government to pressure its critics with fabricated charges under repressive laws,” Amnesty said on Twitter. The latest allegations are “demonstrably false”.