Washington CNN —
The Biden administration on Wednesday took motion towards a number of Iranian officers and entities for committing human rights abuses towards girls and women as a part of its newest spherical of sanctions towards Tehran for its crackdown on unrest within the nation.
The sanctions additionally embrace these towards two senior officers answerable for “severe” human rights abuses within the nation’s jail system, in keeping with the U.S. Treasury Department, which got here on Wednesday because the world celebrated International Women’s Day.
The Treasury Department, working with the European Union, Britain and Australia, has additionally imposed sanctions on three Iranian firms, Iran’s prime commander, “senior” leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian officers who the U.S. authorities claims are “central” to Iran’s skill to dam web entry.
This marks the tenth spherical of monetary sanctions imposed on Iran because the Iranian regime brutally cracked down on peaceable protests following the dying of 22-year-old Martha Amini final 12 months. The crackdown posed the Iranian regime’s greatest home risk in years. However, the nationwide protests that started final September have since petered out within the face of a wave of brutal repression towards protesters, particularly girls.
“Alongside our companions and allies, the United States stands with Iranian girls as they assert their elementary freedoms within the face of a brutal regime that treats girls as second-class residents and makes use of all means to suppress their voices,” stated Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s prime undersecretary for monetary sanctions.
The two sanctioned jail officers, Ali Chaharmahalli and Dariush Bakshi, ran prisons the place political prisoners and protesters had been tortured, sexually abused and violently intimidated, in keeping with the Treasury Department.
According to the US, Bakshi has “personally overseen” the mistreatment of prisoners held by the regime for political or non secular causes.
“Both officers had been complicit in abuses by safety forces towards prisoners of their custody, together with rape, torture and different merciless, inhuman or degrading remedy,” Blinken stated.
The sanctions additionally got here after CNN revealed an in depth report final month about an unprecedented community of secret torture facilities that Iran is utilizing to quell political unrest.
According to the Treasury Department, the three firms sanctioned on Wednesday – Naji Pas Company, Naji Pars Amin Laboratory and Entebag Gostar Seper Company – and their executives have helped procure provides and supplies for Iranian safety businesses.
Other Iranian officers focused by the U.S. on Wednesday included Mahdi Amiri, a “key determine” within the regime’s web shutdown within the face of widespread protests, Saeed Abdulrahim Mousavi, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces, and Habib Shahsavari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, in keeping with the Treasury Department.
According to the US, forces underneath Mousavi’s command have suppressed peaceable protests in 2019 and 2022, allegedly firing weapons at protesters and that Shaasvari’s forces “detained and tortured” folks.
“We will proceed to take motion towards regimes that proceed to perpetrate abuse and violence towards their very own folks, particularly girls and women,” Nelson stated.