U.S. Hits More Iranian Officials, Company With Sanctions Over Protest Crackdown

The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran's chief prosecutor, four military and paramilitary officials, and a company that manufactures anti-riot equipment for their roles in a brutal crackdown on protests that has swept the country for more than three months.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement on December 21 that it imposed sanctions on Attorney-General Mohammad Montazeri, who it said “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.”

The statement said Montazeri issued in September a directive to courts to issue “harsh sentences to many of those arrested.”

Those designated also include two senior commanders in the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and two members of the paramilitary Basij force, which has been central to the suppression of demonstrations.

Treasury identified the IRGC commanders as Hassan Hassanzadeh, the head of its forces in Tehran, and Seyed Sadegh Hosseini, who runs its Beit-al Moghadas Corps of Kurdistan Province. The two Basij members are the force’s deputy coordinator, Hossein Maroufi, and its cyberspace chief, Moslem Moein.

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara, an Iranian company that produces armored vehicles, automatic grenade launchers, bulletproof vests, shields, and “other products used by security forces in protest suppression,” is also targeted.

The sanctions freeze any assets that those targeted may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

“The United States continues to support the people of Iran in the face of this brutal repression, and we are rallying growing international consensus to hold the regime accountable,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a separate statement.

“Thousands of brave Iranians have risked their lives and their liberty to protest the regime’s long record of oppression and violence,” Blinken said, calling on Iran’s clerical regime to “immediately cease its violent crackdown and to listen to its people.”

The country has been rocked by protests since the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police. The protests have since morphed into one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy installed by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Security forces have violently cracked down on the demonstrations, killing at least 469 people, including 63 children, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.

At least 18,000 others have been detained. Dozens have been handed capital punishment or are facing charges that carry a death sentence. Iran carried out the first two executions earlier this month, triggering international condemnation.