US imposes sanctions on 12 Iranian officials for human rights abuses

(CNN) — The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 12 Iranian officials for human rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on protesters, torture of prisoners and targeting Iranian dissidents abroad.

The sanctions were unveiled around the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police.” Her death sparked massive protests throughout the country. Ahead of the anniversary, the Iranian government once again increased its crackdowns on peaceful protesters.

“In the two years since Mahsa Zhina Amini’s senseless killing in the custody of Iran’s so-called Morality Police, the Iranian regime has continued to systematically violate the human rights of the Iranian people,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “The United States remains committed to exposing and sanctioning Iranian officials responsible for human rights abuses.”

A top State Department official told CNN ahead of the anniversary “it’s important to remember that while we have a new Iranian president, a new Iranian leadership, we’re seeing continuity in this kind of human rights abuse.

“It’s important for the international community to judge this government by its actions and not by its words,” said Victoria Taylor, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran.

The new sanctions target four members of the Iran’s security forces who were involved in the violent crackdowns in 2022. One of those sanctioned, Hamid Khorramdel, is the commander of an IRGC unit “responsible for arresting and coercing confessions from activists,” according to the Treasury Department. Another, Mustafa Bazvand, led forces responsible for “killing at least one individual and arresting several journalists covering the violence.”

They also target four officials who the US said perpetrated human rights abuses within Iran’s prisons, including one, Alireza Babaei Farsani, who oversees the province of prisons where Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was tortured “with the goal of forcing him into a televised confession.” A second official, Ahmad Reza Azadeh, heads a prison where at least one person who participated in the Amini protests is facing “imminent execution” for their participation.

“During Azadeh’s time as head of Shiban Prison, prison guards on several occasions used live ammunition and tear gas on prisoners protesting inadequate conditions in the prison,” the Treasury Department said. “Prisoners in Shiban Prison were subject to torture and other ill-treatment, denied medical care, and blamed for the deaths of prisoners killed by security forces.”

The final four officials were sanctioned for their involvement in targeting Iranian dissidents abroad. One of them, Yahya Hosseini Panjaki, “played a role in the attempted bombing of a gathering of Iranian dissidents in Paris, among other operations in Europe,” the Treasury Department said.

Another, Javad Ghaffarhaddadi, is the head of Iran’s Intelligence Organization’s Special Operations division. That unit, according to the Treasury Department, “has played a key role in targeting critics of the Iranian regime abroad, including the 2019 kidnapping of France-based journalist and political refugee Ruhollah Zam, which ultimately led to his execution in Iran.”

In addition to sanctions, Taylor told CNN the US is also “very focused on has been seeing how we can ensure that the Iranian people have access to the free flow of information and to the internet.”

In 2022, amid internet shutdowns by the Iranian government in the face of the widespread protests, the US government took steps meant to allow technology firms to help the people of Iran access information online.

“That’s been a major pillar of our work, and something we’re going to remain active on,” Taylor said.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

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