The US government on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Iran’s attorney general, four other Iranian officials and a company that supports the country’s security forces for their role in a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
The Treasury Department announced that it would charge Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, two senior commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and two members of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group that often enforces strict laws regarding dress and behavior. , will ban.
“We condemn the Iranian regime’s increased use of violence against its own people defending their human rights,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The US unit identified the Revolutionary Guard commanders as Hassan Hasanzadeh, the head of its army in Tehran, and Sayed Sadegh Husseini, who operates his corps from Beit al-Moghdas in Kurdistan province. The department said the two members of Basij are Hossein Maroufi, the group’s deputy coordinator, and Moslem Moeen, its head of cyberspace.
The Treasury Department said it would also impose sanctions on the Imen Sanat Zaman company, which makes armored vehicles and other equipment for security forces. The sanctions freeze any assets the affected people may have in US jurisdiction and prevent US citizens from doing business with them.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by morality police. Since then, the demonstrations have become one of the strongest challenges to the democracy established by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Security forces have violently suppressed the protests, killing more than 500 protesters, and detaining more than 18,000, according to human rights activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. According to the group, more than 60 members of the security forces have lost their lives.
