Sanctioning Those Connected to Human Rights Abuses in Iran

Today – on International Women’s Day – the United States is taking action in coordination with the European Union, United Kingdom, and Australia to promote accountability for the Iranian regime’s continued human rights abuses, particularly those against women and girls, including those conducted in the course of the brutal crackdown on protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini.  To that end, the United States is designating  two Iranian officials overseeing prisons in Iran, two senior Iranian security leaders, three companies that supply Iranian law enforcement, and the heads of these companies, as well as a high ranking law enforcement official.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is imposing sanctions on Ali Chaharmahali, the Director General of Prisons in Alborz Province, and Dariush Bakhshi, the Head of Orumiyeh Central Prison.  Both officials were complicit in the mistreatment of inmates in their custody by security forces, including through rape, torture, or other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.  Treasury is also sanctioning the Technical Director of the Cyberspace Affairs Deputy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Iran, Mahdi Amiri, for acting on behalf of an entity that has engaged in censorship or other activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly.

Further, Treasury is sanctioning Sayyed Abdolrahim Mousavi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, and Habib Shahsavari, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Shohada Provincial Corps in West Azerbaijan Province.  IRGC forces under the command of Shahsavari are alleged to have routinely detained and tortured individuals at IRGC detainment facilities in West Azerbaijan Province, and Iranian army personnel under Mousavi’s command reportedly fired machine guns at protestors in November 2019.

Finally, Treasury is sanctioning Naji Pas Company, an Iranian firm that supplies the Law Enforcement Forces of Iran (LEF), Iran’s national police force, with specific equipment and goods; its CEO, Reza Asgharian; Entebagh Gostar Sepehr Company, a company that produces riot control equipment used by LEF units tasked with crowd suppression and cracking down on protestors; its CEO, Gholamreza Ramezanian Sani; Naji Pars Amin Institute, a company that provides security and protection services  under the supervision of the LEF; and its CEO, Bahram Abdollahinejad.

The United States remains deeply concerned that Iranian authorities continue to suppress dissent and peaceful protest, including through mass arrests, sham trials, hasty executions, the detention of journalists, and the use of sexual violence as a means of protest suppression.  Together with allies and partners around the world, we continue to take action to support the people of Iran in the face of these and other human rights abuses by the Iranian regime.

For more information on today’s action, see Treasury’s press release.