CNN —
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 12 Iranian officers for human rights violations, together with violent crackdowns on protesters, torture of prisoners and focusing on of Iranian dissidents overseas.
The sanctions have been introduced on the second anniversary of the dying of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by Iran’s “morality police.” Her dying sparked huge protests throughout the nation. Ahead of the anniversary, the Iranian authorities has once more stepped up its crackdown on peaceable protesters.
“Two years after the mindless killing of Mahsa Zina Amini by Iran’s so-called morality police, the Iranian regime continues to systematically violate the human rights of the Iranian individuals,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller mentioned in a press release. mentioned. “The United States stays dedicated to exposing and sanctioning Iranian officers answerable for human rights abuses.”
“It’s vital to do not forget that whereas we’ve got a brand new Iranian president and a brand new Iranian management, a majority of these human rights abuses proceed,” a senior State Department official advised CNN forward of the anniversary. he mentioned.
“It is vital that the worldwide group judges this authorities by its actions, not its phrases,” mentioned Victoria Taylor, assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran.
The new sanctions goal 4 members of Iranian safety forces concerned in a violent crackdown in 2022. One of these sanctioned, Hamid Kholamdel, is the commander of a unit within the Revolutionary Guards “in control of arresting activists and extorting confessions,” the report mentioned. Ministry of Finance. Another, Mustafa Bazwand, led the drive answerable for “killing at the least one particular person and arresting a number of journalists who have been masking the violence.”
It has additionally focused 4 officers the United States says dedicated human rights abuses in Iranian prisons, together with Iranian rapper Toumaji Salehi, who was accused of “extorting a confession on tv.” ” together with Alireza Babaei Farsani, who oversees the jail the place the torture occurred. The second official, Ahmad Reza Azadeh, is the warden of a jail the place at the least one participant within the Amini protests faces “imminent execution” for his participation.
“During Mr. Azadeh’s time as director of Sivan Prison, guards used dwell ammunition and tear gasoline on a number of events in opposition to prisoners protesting inappropriate jail circumstances,” the Ministry of Finance mentioned. “Prisoners in Siban jail have been subjected to torture and different ill-treatment, denied entry to medical care, and held answerable for the deaths of prisoners killed by safety forces.”
The final 4 officers have been sanctioned for his or her involvement with Iranian opposition targets overseas. One of them, Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, “was concerned within the tried bombing of an Iranian opposition rally in Paris, amongst different operations in Europe,” the Treasury Department mentioned.
The different, Javad Ghaffar Haddadi, is the pinnacle of Iran’s intelligence company’s particular operations division. According to the Treasury Department, the unit “targets critics of the Iranian regime overseas, together with the 2019 kidnapping and eventual execution of French-based journalist and political refugee Ruhollah Zam in Iran.” “He has performed an vital function in making this occur.”
Taylor advised CNN that along with sanctions, the United States is “very targeted on how we are able to make sure the free stream of data and entry to the web for the Iranian individuals.”
In 2022, as Iran’s authorities shut down the web in response to mass protests, the U.S. authorities took steps to permit know-how corporations to assist Iranians entry data on-line.
“This is a giant pillar of our work and we are going to proceed to be proactive about it,” Taylor mentioned.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.