U.S. officials have unveiled the latest round of sanctions on Iran over its government’s violence toward women and girls amid protests happening around the country.
In a news release, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Treasury Department has implemented sanctions on multiple Iranian officials, company presidents, security leaders and companies for their role in the crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.
Many of those protests have been against laws requiring women in Iran to wear head coverings.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Director General of Prisons in Alborz Province Ali Chaharmahali and Head of Orumiyeh Central Prison Dariush Bakhshi for their roles, saying that both men were complicit in the mistreatment of inmates in their custody by security forces. This mistreatment included rape, torture and other methods of degradation, according to the U.S. government.
The department also sanctioned Mahdi Amiri, the Cyberspace Affairs deputy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Iran, “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.”
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