CNN
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The US on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 12 Iranian officers for human rights abuses, together with violent crackdowns on protesters, torture of prisoners and concentrating on Iranian dissidents overseas.
The sanctions have been unveiled across the second anniversary of the dying of Mahsa Amini within the custody of Iran’s “morality police.” Her dying sparked large protests all through the nation. Forward of the anniversary, the Iranian authorities as soon as once more elevated its crackdowns on peaceable protesters.
“Within the two years since Mahsa Zhina Amini’s mindless killing within the custody of Iran’s so-called Morality Police, the Iranian regime has continued to systematically violate the human rights of the Iranian individuals,” State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned in an announcement. “The US stays dedicated to exposing and sanctioning Iranian officers chargeable for human rights abuses.”
A high State Division official advised CNN forward of the anniversary “it’s essential to keep in mind that whereas we’ve a brand new Iranian president, a brand new Iranian management, we’re seeing continuity in this type of human rights abuse.
“It’s essential for the worldwide neighborhood to guage this authorities by its actions and never by its phrases,” mentioned Victoria Taylor, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran.
The brand new sanctions goal 4 members of the Iran’s safety forces who have been concerned within the violent crackdowns in 2022. A type of sanctioned, Hamid Khorramdel, is the commander of an IRGC unit “chargeable for arresting and coercing confessions from activists,” in response to the Treasury Division. One other, Mustafa Bazvand, led forces chargeable for “killing at the very least one particular person and arresting a number of journalists protecting the violence.”
Additionally they goal 4 officers who the US mentioned perpetrated human rights abuses inside Iran’s prisons, together with one, Alireza Babaei Farsani, who oversees the province of prisons the place Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was tortured “with the aim of forcing him right into a televised confession.” A second official, Ahmad Reza Azadeh, heads a jail the place at the very least one one that participated within the Amini protests is going through “imminent execution” for his or her participation.
“Throughout Azadeh’s time as head of Shiban Jail, jail guards on a number of events used dwell ammunition and tear fuel on prisoners protesting insufficient circumstances within the jail,” the Treasury Division mentioned. “Prisoners in Shiban Jail have been topic to torture and different ill-treatment, denied medical care, and blamed for the deaths of prisoners killed by safety forces.”
The ultimate 4 officers have been sanctioned for his or her involvement in concentrating on Iranian dissidents overseas. One in every of them, Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, “performed a task within the tried bombing of a gathering of Iranian dissidents in Paris, amongst different operations in Europe,” the Treasury Division mentioned.
One other, Javad Ghaffarhaddadi, is the pinnacle of Iran’s Intelligence Group’s Particular Operations division. That unit, in response to the Treasury Division, “has performed a key function in concentrating on critics of the Iranian regime overseas, together with the 2019 kidnapping of France-based journalist and political refugee Ruhollah Zam, which in the end led to his execution in Iran.”
Along with sanctions, Taylor advised CNN the US can also be “very targeted on has been seeing how we are able to be sure that the Iranian individuals have entry to the free circulation of data and to the web.”
In 2022, amid web shutdowns by the Iranian authorities within the face of the widespread protests, the US authorities took steps meant to permit expertise companies to assist the individuals of Iran entry data on-line.
“That’s been a significant pillar of our work, and one thing we’re going to stay lively on,” Taylor mentioned.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
