Eurasia Press & News
The US Treasury Department also designated a company manufacturing riot gear for Iran’s law enforcement.
The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled new sanctions on Iranian officials, including the senior official overseeing the prosecution of protesters, as the nationwide anti-government demonstrations in Iran continue into their fourth month.
The US Treasury Department designated Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who in late September reportedly directed Iran’s courts to issue harsh sentences to those arrested during the protests.
According to the department, Montazeri “oversees prosecutions and the enforcement of criminal judgments throughout Iran, including such actions brought in Iran’s Revolutionary Courts, the primary venue for charging those arrested in the protests.”
Iran has begun carrying out the death sentence for prisoners jailed amid the unrest. Iranian authorities have publicly executed two prisoners arrested in connection with the protests and sentenced at least a dozen more to death, according to activists.
Also designated on Wednesday was Iranian company Imen Sanat Zaman Fara, which the Treasury accused of manufacturing and providing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces with armored vehicles used in crowd suppression. The company also produces automatic grenade launchers, bulletproof vests, shields and other products used by Iranian security forces to suppress the protests, the department said.
The latest tranche of sanctions also targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders in the capital city of Tehran and Kurdistan in northwestern Iran for their roles in the crackdown. Two senior officials of Iran’s Basij militia forces were hit with sanctions, one of whom oversees efforts to censor Iranians’ online activities, the department said.
“We denounce the Iranian regime’s intensifying use of violence against its own people who are advocating for their human rights,” Brian Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
“The United States and our partners are dedicated to holding Iranian officials to account for egregious abuses committed against Iranian citizens fighting for their fundamental freedoms,” Nelson said.
Since the protests erupted over the Sept. 16 death in police custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, the administration has issued multiple rounds of sanctions targeting Iranian officials involved in the violence against protesters and internet censorship.
On Dec. 9, the Treasury Department designated three Iranian officials, including the Law Enforcement Forces commander in Iran’s western Kermanshah province.
