The UK has imposed sanctions on senior Iranian political and security figures, and the so-called morality police, following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.
the 22 year old he died while in custody last month after being detained for alleged violations of the country’s strict dress code.
In response, the UK has sanctioned the entire country’s morality police, as well as its chief Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi and Tehran division chief Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.
The UK is also imposing sanctions on:
• Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
• Hassan Karami, commander of the NAJA Special Forces Unit of the Iranian police
• Hossein Ashtari, the commander in chief of the Iranian police
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Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: “The UK stands with the people of Iran who are courageously calling for their government to be held accountable and for their fundamental human rights to be respected.
“These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian authorities: We will hold them accountable for their repression of women and girls and for the terrible violence they have inflicted on their own people.”
The sanctions are intended to ensure that listed persons cannot travel to the UK, and that any of their assets in the UK, or by UK persons anywhere, are frozen.
“For decades, the morality police have used the threat of arrest and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public,” the FCDO said.
The government also cited what it described as reports of the use of live ammunition against protesters and the burial of the bodies of protesters killed by security services without the knowledge of their families.
Last week, the Foreign Office summoned Iran’s top diplomat to the UK, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, over the country’s crackdown on the protests.
Demonstrations continue across Iran over the September 16 death.
Iran’s government insists that Ms. Amini was not ill-treated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of bruising.
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