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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The UK on Monday sanctioned Iran’s morality police and a number of security officials following weeks of violent crackdown by the Iranian regime on protests triggered by the controversial death of a Kurdish woman in police custody.
“For decades the Morality Police have used the threat of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public,” read a statement from the UK government, adding that the UK has “sanctioned the Morality Police in its entirety, as well as both its chief Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi and the Head of the Tehran Division Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.”
The statement added that the British government has sanctioned a number of Iranian security officials such as the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Basij force, the Commander of the NAJA Special Forces Unit of the Iranian police, and the commander-in-chief of Iranian police, for committing “serious human rights violations”.
“These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian authorities – we will hold you to account for your repression of women and girls and for the shocking violence you have inflicted on your own people,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.
The move by the UK government comes two days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will utilize the most powerful provision of its immigration and refugee protection act to formally make 10,000 officers and senior members of the Iranian regime “inadmissible to Canada for their engagement in terrorism and systemic and gross human rights violations.”
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in country-wide protests stemming from the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a Kurdish woman after her arrest by the country’s so-called morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress code. The demonstrations have triggered a violent crackdown by Iranian authorities.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said on Friday that at least 185 people have been killed during the demonstrations.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week said the EU had called on Iranian authorities to ensure that the fundamental rights of citizens are respected. “Numerous reports clearly show that the response of Iranian security and police forces has been disproportionate and resulted in tens of dozens of lives lost,” it read.
Borrell added that the concerns regarding the violent crackdown on Iranian protesters were raised directly to the country’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
The White House issued a statement on Monday evening saying that US President Joe Biden would impose more sanctions on Iran.
While the IRGC has been on the list of the United States’ sanctions for years, the morality police of Iran only recently made it on the list.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said last month they were sanctioning the morality police and seven senior officials of Iran’s security bodies who “oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters.”
In accordance with the sanctions, all properties and interests of the designated individuals and entities in the US “must be blocked and reported to OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control],” according to the treasury department’s statement, adding that persons who “engage in certain transactions” with the designated individuals might be subjected to designations as well.
“For decades the Morality Police have used the threat of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public,” read a statement from the UK government, adding that the UK has “sanctioned the Morality Police in its entirety, as well as both its chief Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi and the Head of the Tehran Division Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.”
The statement added that the British government has sanctioned a number of Iranian security officials such as the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Basij force, the Commander of the NAJA Special Forces Unit of the Iranian police, and the commander-in-chief of Iranian police, for committing “serious human rights violations”.
“These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian authorities – we will hold you to account for your repression of women and girls and for the shocking violence you have inflicted on your own people,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.
The move by the UK government comes two days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will utilize the most powerful provision of its immigration and refugee protection act to formally make 10,000 officers and senior members of the Iranian regime “inadmissible to Canada for their engagement in terrorism and systemic and gross human rights violations.”
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in country-wide protests stemming from the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a Kurdish woman after her arrest by the country’s so-called morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress code. The demonstrations have triggered a violent crackdown by Iranian authorities.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR) said on Friday that at least 185 people have been killed during the demonstrations.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week said the EU had called on Iranian authorities to ensure that the fundamental rights of citizens are respected. “Numerous reports clearly show that the response of Iranian security and police forces has been disproportionate and resulted in tens of dozens of lives lost,” it read.
Borrell added that the concerns regarding the violent crackdown on Iranian protesters were raised directly to the country’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
The White House issued a statement on Monday evening saying that US President Joe Biden would impose more sanctions on Iran.
While the IRGC has been on the list of the United States’ sanctions for years, the morality police of Iran only recently made it on the list.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said last month they were sanctioning the morality police and seven senior officials of Iran’s security bodies who “oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters.”
In accordance with the sanctions, all properties and interests of the designated individuals and entities in the US “must be blocked and reported to OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control],” according to the treasury department’s statement, adding that persons who “engage in certain transactions” with the designated individuals might be subjected to designations as well.
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