Canada imposes new sanctions on Iran over alleged human rights violations

Canada has imposed additional sanctions on Iran, targeting police and judicial officials over what Ottawa claimed as gross and systematic human rights violations at home and abroad and actions to destabilize peace and security.

In a statement on Monday, Canada's Foreign Ministry said the latest sanctions target four individuals and two entities, including senior officials and Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, which Canada accused of participating in the crackdown and arrest of protesters that started after the death of an Iranian woman in a police station some seven weeks ago.

The sanctions list includes Hossein Rahimi, Police Commander of Tehran, Ahmad Fazelian, Deputy Attorney General, Asadollah Jafari, Head of the Judicial Administration in North Khorasan Province and Morteza Mousavi, Deputy Head of the Judicial Administration in Mazandaran Province.

Al-Mustafa International University was also named, accused of recruiting students into the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

According to the statement, the sanctions prohibit dealings with the above-mentioned individuals and entities, effectively freezing any assets they may hold in Canada.

Canada imposes sanctions on Iran’s Press TV, police force following foreign-backed riots

Canada imposes sanctions on a wide range of Iranian institutions and persons, including Press TV, over alleged human rights violations.

Canada has in recent weeks been carrying out a series of sanctions against a wide range of Iranian institutions and persons and permanently denied entry to more than 10,000 Iranian officials.

The latest announcement brings to 93 individuals and 179 entities the total number sanctioned in Iran, effectively freezing their assets in Canada and making them inadmissible to this country.

Riots broke out in Iran last month after a young Iranian woman, identified as Mahsa Amini, died. The 22-year-old fainted at a police station in the capital, Tehran, and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. An official report by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization said that Amini’s controversial death was caused by an illness rather than alleged blows to the head or other vital body organs.

Canada’s targeting of Iranian media exposes Western hypocrisy: Tehran

Iran’s Foreign ministry says it is not the first time Canada sanctions Iranian media, pointing to its recent sanctions on Press TV.

The rioters have been going on a rampage across the country, attacking security officers, resorting to vandalism against public property, and desecrating religious sanctities.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has announced that the United States and the United Kingdom were “directly” involved in the recent riots, adding that dozens of terrorists affiliated with the Zionist regime and anti-revolution groups have also been detained in the unrest.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC Intelligence Organization also in a statement asserted the major role of foreign intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, in orchestrating the violent riots in Iran.

Late last month, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that the rioters have been backed by Western regimes and their mercenary media, which disseminated misinformation and distorted the sequence of events that led to Amini’s death even before the official investigation into the incident concludes.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk