New powers to stop "blood-stained dictators" and despots from laundering their money through Britain by freezing their assets have been tabled by the Government.
Security Minister Ben Wallace said the move would send a "major signal" around the world that the UK could not be used as a base to hide "ill-gotten gains".
Mr Wallace’s move is part of a wider crackdown on criminal finances which has also seen the UK Government order a review of Scottish limited partnerships exposed by The Herald for being owned in secrecy jurisdictions, including those ruled by Britain.
Some opposition leaders and backbenchers want to see more done. Tory former justice minister Dominic Raab urged the Government to "stop turning a blind eye to the blood money of butchers" as he called for wider reaching measures to be introduced.
Another former minister, Labour's Caroline Flint, said UK offshore tax havens should be much more transparent about company ownership so the information can be scrutinised like the Panama papers, a Labour former minister has said.
Caroline Flint said overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands should be forced to publish public registers of the ultimate owners of companies, in a bid to crack down on corruption.
The latest proposals come largely in response to the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who claimed in 2008 that fraud was committed by an organised crime group in Russia in collusion with corrupt Interior Ministry officials.
Mr Magnitsky was arrested shortly after, accused of stealing the money himself and died a year later in jail after what supporters claim was a systematic torture campaign.
The Government's proposals, brought forward as an amendment to the Criminal Finances Bill, would expand the scope of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to include instances of gross human rights abuses and violations.
Mr Wallace said: "We are putting on the statute book a new power to take action based on gross human rights abuse, torture, degrading treatment. We have not done that before.
"That's a major step and a major signal to countries around the world that if there is evidence presented we could interdict with their assets and make sure we send that very powerful message that London, the United Kingdom, is not a base for them to put their assets or ill-gotten gains from such behaviour."
Mr Raab brought forward alternative proposals, backed by dozens of MPs from different parties, which would also allow individuals to ask the High Court to make an order to freeze the assets of anyone guilty of such activity.
But Mr Wallace warned the cross-party push would "open up a whole can of worms".
Tory former minister Sir Eric Pickles, the Government's anti-corruption champion, backed Mr Wallace's measures and said: "The concern and the worry would be that we would get not just vexatious complaints but complaints designed just for publicity in the almost certain knowledge that the complaint would not be seen through by the court and that there would be virtually no cost to the people making the complaint.
"This gives the opportunity of actually nabbing the guilty and saying to people that blood-stained dictators have no place in putting their money in this country."
Mr Wallace added: "This measure would send a clear statement that the UK will not stand by and allow those who have committed gross abuse or violations around the world to launder their money here."
The Herald last year revealed that the nephew of Uzbekistan's now dead despot Islam Karimov had used a Scottish limited partnership to own hotels in Riga, Latvia. Mr Wallace has described our investigations in to the abuse of SLPS, including buy figures in the former Soviet Union, as "very concerning".
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