The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions against five Iranians, including two senior officials in the prison system accused of violating the human rights of women prisoners and an official allegedly responsible for blocking Internet access in the country.
The objective of the sanctions, on International Women’s Day, is to highlight the “abuses” of human rights that the Iranian regime has committed, especially against women and girls, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, explained in a statement.
Blinken made special mention of the abuses committed against Iranian women in the wave of protests that followed the death in September of last year of the young Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing the wrong flight and died shortly after in police custody.
Those sanctioned are the director general of the northern province of Alborz, Ali Chaharmahali, and the head of the city of Urmía, Dariush Bakhshi, whom Washington considers “accomplices” in the mistreatment of prisoners, which includes torture, rape and other cruel and inhuman treatment.
Another of those sanctioned is Mahdi Amiri, a senior official in the specialized cyberspace unit of the Attorney General’s Office and whom Washington accuses of participating in activities to block Internet access and censor certain content, the State Department detailed.
In addition, the United States sanctioned the chief commander of the Islamic Republic Army, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, and the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps in West Azerbaijan province (northwest), Habib Shahsavari
The two have been sanctioned for the role they allegedly played in the crackdown on protests over Amini’s death.
The death of this 22-year-old Kurdish girl sparked the biggest protests in decades against the Islamic Republic, led by young people shouting “woman, life, freedom”, who have almost disappeared after a repression that has caused some 500 deaths and in which four demonstrators have been hanged.
In his statement, Blinken stated that Washington remains concerned about the actions of the Iranian authorities for the use of violence to suppress these peaceful protests. “The United States remains deeply concerned that the Iranian authorities continue to suppress dissent and peaceful protests, including through mass arrests, show trials, hasty executions, the detention of journalists, and the use of sexual violence as a means to suppress protests,” it said. you can read in the letter.
He also stressed that they continue to take measures “to support the people of Iran against these and other Human Rights abuses” jointly “with allies and partners around the world.”
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