The European Council has decided to impose restrictive measures on an additional five individuals and two entities responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.
The new listings include the current commander of the Tehran Police Relief Unit of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), and an individual linked to the “Maryam Arvin case” – a lawyer who was brutally arrested, gravely mistreated, and subsequently died for her activities in defence of protesters. The sanctions also target the spokesman of the Iranian Police, and the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran (SCC), the authority responsible for repression in the cyberspace.
Furthermore, the Council is listing the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which is the body responsible for managing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ investments and funnelling money into the regime’s brutal repression and the Student Basij Organization (SBO). The latter acts as the IRGC’s violent enforcers on university campuses where students staged protests in the fall of 2022, and were subsequently the victims of repression and serious human rights violations such as abduction and torture.
Restrictive measures now apply to a total of 216 individuals and 37 entities. They consist of an asset freeze, a travel ban to the EU and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available to those listed. A ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications is also in place.
The European Union expressed its support for the fundamental aspiration of the people of Iran for a future where their universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, protected and fulfilled, and has called on Iran to end the practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters, reverse the death penalty sentences pronounced, as well as provide due process to all detainees. The EU also calls upon Iran to end the distressing practice of detaining foreign civilians with a view to making political gains.
Image: Ayatollah Khamenei meets Vladimir Putin, By english.khamenei.ir – http://english.khamenei.ir/d/2015/11/23/4/815.jpg?ts=1450098624000, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47401891
