Lalrp.org: 
Washington
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The Biden administration took motion Wednesday in opposition to a number of Iranian officers and entities for committing human rights abuses in opposition to girls and women within the newest spherical of sanctions in opposition to Tehran over its crackdown on unrest within the nation.
Because the world marked Worldwide Ladies’s Day, Wednesday’s actions embody sanctions in opposition to two senior officers in Iran’s jail system accountable for “severe” human rights abuses, based on the US Treasury Division.
“The US stays deeply involved that Iranian authorities proceed to suppress dissent and peaceable protest, together with by way of mass arrests, sham trials, hasty executions, the detention of journalists, and the usage of sexual violence as a way of protest suppression,” stated US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In coordination with the European Union, United Kingdom and Australia, the Treasury can also be sanctioning three Iranian corporations, a prime Iranian commander, a “high-ranking” chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and an Iranian official the US authorities alleges is “central” to Iran’s potential to dam web entry.
That is the tenth spherical of economic sanctions in opposition to Iran because the regime’s brutal crackdown of peaceable protests after the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini final 12 months posed the most important home menace to the Iranian regime in years. However since then, the nationwide protests that began final September have petered out within the face of a brutal wave of repression in opposition to protestors, particularly girls.
“The US, together with our companions and allies, stand with the ladies of Iran, who advocate for elementary freedoms within the face of a brutal regime that treats girls as second-class residents and makes an attempt to suppress their voices by any means,” stated beneath secretary Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s prime official accountable for monetary sanctions.
The 2 sanctioned jail officers, Ali Chaharmahali and Dariush Bakhshi, have run prisons the place political prisoners and protesters have been tortured, sexually abused and violently threatened, based on the Treasury.
Bakhshi, based on the US, has “personally overseen” the abuse of prisoners who’re being held by the regime for political or spiritual causes.
“Each officers had been complicit within the mistreatment of inmates of their custody by safety forces, together with by way of rape, torture, or different merciless, inhumane, or degrading remedy,” stated Blinken.
The sanctions additionally come after printed an intensive report final month on an unprecedented community of secret torture facilities utilized by Iran to crush political unrest.
The three corporations sanctioned Wednesday – Naji Pas Firm, Naji Pars Amin Institute and Entebagh Gostar Sepehr Firm – and their management have helped procure items and materiel for Iran’s safety companies, based on the Treasury.
The opposite prime Iranian officers focused by the US Wednesday embody Mahdi Amiri, who has been “central” to the regime’s web shutdowns within the face of widespread protests, in addition to Sayyed Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Military, and Habib Shahsavari, a commander within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, based on the Treasury.
Troops beneath Mousavi’s command have suppressed peaceable demonstrations in 2019 and 2022, together with allegedly firing weapons at demonstrators, and forces led by Shahsvari have “detained and tortured” individuals, based on the US.
“We’ll proceed to take motion in opposition to the regime, which perpetuates abuse and violence in opposition to its personal residents— particularly girls and women,” stated Nelson.
