Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has appointed Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri to the post of Third Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, the latter’s government administration informs.

The respective decree was signed Friday.

The office of the first deputy PM of Georgia is held by minister of economy Levan Davitashvili, and the other deputy premier is minister of defense Irakli Chikovani, reports SOVA.

It is noteworthy that the order on the aforesaid appointment of Gomelauri was signed a few hours after the US and the UK announced that he was subject to sanctions and on the list of the Global Magnitsky Act—which authorizes the US government to sanction those foreign government officials that are human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the US.

Vakhtang Gomelauri is slammed by many of his colleagues in Georgia for his methods—which local and foreign human rights activists say go beyond the law—of dispersing the protests.