The UK has imposed sanctions on senior security and political
figures in Iran and the so-called Morality Police.
Mahsa Amini’s death, following her arrest by the Morality Police,
has sparked protests across Iran and shocked the world. For
decades the Morality Police have used the threat of detention and
violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave
in public.
In response, the UK has today sanctioned the Morality Police in
its entirety, as well as both its chief Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh
Gachi and the Head of the Tehran Division Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.
The UK is also imposing sanctions today on five leading political
and security officials in Iran for committing serious human
rights violations, including:
-
Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij force, responsible for internal
security in Iran.
-
Hassan Karami. the Commander of the NAJA Special
Forces Unit of the Iranian police.
-
Hossein Ashtari, the Commander-in-chief of the
Iranian police.
The Basij force, NAJA Special Forces Unit and the wider Iranian
police have played a central role in the crackdown on protests
across Iran in recent weeks, as well as the fuel-related protests
in 2019.
There have been reports of live ammunition being used against
protestors, including when students were blockaded by security
forces at the Sharif University earlier this week, and the bodies
of protestors killed by security services buried without the
families’ knowledge.
Foreign Secretary said:
“The UK stands with the people of Iran who are bravely
calling for accountability from their government and for their
fundamental human rights to be respected.
“These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian
authorities – we will hold you to account for your repression of
women and girls and for the shocking violence you have inflicted
on your own people.”
These sanctions will ensure that the individuals on the list
cannot travel to the UK and any of their assets held in the UK,
or by UK persons anywhere, will be frozen.
Earlier this week the Foreign Secretary
instructed the FCDO to summon the Iranian Chargé d’Affaires
to express the UK’s condemnation of the Iranian authorities’
violent crackdown on protests.
[ENDS]
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- The
Sanctions List has been updated here.
- The list
of those who have been designated as part of the Morality Police
designations is below:
o Morality Police
o Mohammad Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi (Head of the
Morality Police)
o Haj Ahmad Mirzaei (Head of the Tehran division of
the Morality Police)
- Sanctions
are imposed on the group below over their role in the violent
crackdown on fuel-related protests in Iran in 2019:
o Gholamreza Soleimani (Head of the Basij
Organisation)
o Hassan Karami (Commander of the NAJA (Police)
Special Unit)
o Hossein Ashtari (Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s
Police Forces)
o Leila Vaseghi (former Governor of Shahr-e Qods
province)
o Hassan Shahvarpour (commander of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Khuzestan province and Deputy
of the South West Karbala Headquarters)
