US Imposes New Iran Sanctions Targeting IRGC Commanders, Prison Directors - Treasury

The United States has imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, prison directors and other individuals involved in what it called a crackdown on nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of the Morality Police, according to a Treasury Department release on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2022) The United States has imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, prison directors and other individuals involved in what it called a crackdown on nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of the Morality Police, according to a Treasury Department release on Wednesday.

"Today, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating 10 Iranian officials for the brutal ongoing crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran, as well as two Iranian intelligence actors and two Iranian entities involved in the Iranian government's efforts to disrupt digital freedom," the release stated.

The new IRGC leadership targets include Intelligence Organization Commander Mohammad Kazemi, who has overseen an alleged crackdown on civil society, and Abbas Nilforushan, deputy commander of Operations Command, one of the security organizations directly in charge of protest suppression, according to the release.

The new sanctions target Iranian prison officials, including Hedayat Farzadi, warden of Evin Prison; Seyyed Heshmatollah Hayat Al-Ghaib, director-general of Tehran Province Prisons; Heidar Pasandideh, warden of Sanandaj Central Prison in Kurdistan province; Murad Fathi, director-general of prisons in Kurdistan Province; Morteza Piri, warden of Zahedan Prison; and Mohammad Hossein Khosravi, director-general of Sistan and Baluchistan Province Prisons and former warden of Zahedan Prison.

The sanctions also target officials in Sistan and Baluchistan province, the site of some of the worst violence in the latest round of protests, including Governor Hossein Modarres Khiabani and Ahmad Shafahi, commander of Salman Corps, the IRGC military unit in the province.

Ministry of Intelligence and Security members Seyed Mojtaba Mostafavi and Farzin Karimi, who co-founded the Ravin academy to train individuals in cybersecurity and hacking, are also being sanctioned, as well as Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company, one of the main operators of social media filtering services in Iran, the Treasury said.

OFAC previously sanctioned on September 22 and October 6 key Iranian organizations and officials involved in the protest crackdown. To address the purported crackdown on internet access, it also expanded licensing for US software and internet services available to Iranians.