EU adds 7 more Iranians to sanctions list over ‘crackdown’ on protests

BRUSSELS (AA): The EU foreign ministers have agreed to add seven more people to the EU’s sanctions list over “serious human rights violations in Iran,” including judiciary members and high-ranking civilian officials responsible for “crackdown” on protests.

The new listings include a public prosecutor and a deputy judge from Isfahan province “who are responsible for the trials against the protestors Saleh Mirhashmi, Majid Kazemi and Saeid Yaqoubi, subsequently executed in May 2023,” the Council of the European Union said in a statement.

A commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard from Isfahan and Amol city’s governor were also added to the sanctions list for action against protesters.

Gilan province’s governor and police commander were also blacklisted for ordering security forces “to open fire on protesters in the context of the 2022-2023 nationwide protests causing numerous deaths and injuries, including to children.”

The leader of the Karaj security forces was also sanctioned “over the detention and killing of Mohammad Reza Ghorbani and the detention and rape of Amrita Abbassi by” his personnel.

The EU foreign affairs ministers urged “the Iranian authorities to stop the violent crackdown against peaceful protests, cease their resort to arbitrary detentions as a means of silencing critical voices, and release all those unjustly detained.”

They also called on Iran to stop “imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters, reverse the death penalty sentences pronounced.”

With the 9th sanctions package, the bloc now targets 223 people and 37 individuals in Iran, forbidding EU operators to make funds available to them and preventing individuals from entering EU territory.