ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The European Union (EU) Council on Friday imposed restrictive measures on an additional six individuals over human rights violations in Iran, which include five judges of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and an Iranian hacker.
The EU announced sanctions against “five judges…who have presided over trials targeting religious minorities and political dissidents,” for imposing “death sentences and long prison sentences, flogging, fines or supplementary punishments on political dissidents and human rights activists.”
The council named the violations in connection with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Narges Mohammadi, “on the basis of vaguely-defined national security and religious charges,” as well as the ruling on protestors in relation to “the 2022 ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.”
EU sanctions come amid Tehran’s crackdown on citizens, including members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minority groups, during nationwide protests as well as the Iran war which began in late February, the latter marking an uptick in the increase of executions in recent months.
Nationwide protests ensued in 2022 over the killing of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in police custody regarding her loose head scarf, which snowballed into the better part of January 2026 following a spike in inflation and economic downturn, during which hundreds of protestors were arrested, detained, and sentenced.
The Council also targeted Nima Salehi, “an Iranian hacker and computer engineer,” founder and “leading figure within the ‘Ashiyane’ cyber group,” which the Council claimed “cooperates closely with the EU-listed Cyber Police (FATA)” and IRGC and is “responsible for intensive cyber-attacks on both domestic opponents and reformists and foreign institutions, thereby assisting the regime’s crackdown against the opposition.”
Today’s decision brings the EU council’s total restrictive measures related to human rights violations to 269 individuals and 53 entities.
The measures include asset freeze, travel bans to the EU, a ban on financial and economic associations with said parties, a ban on exports to Iran of equipment that might be used for internal repression, including equipment for monitoring telecommunications.
“The EU strongly supports the fundamental aspirations of the people of Iran for a future where their universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully respected, protected and fulfilled,” the statement read.
Similarly, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released a press statement designating “four individuals and nine entities that form key components of Babak Zanjani (Zanjani)’s broader Iranian sanctions evasion network,” on the basis of “obscure ownership, launder revenue, and expand his capacity to move funds covertly through Iran and offshore.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency denounced on Friday the continuation of the “unjust actions” of the US over its targeting of “four [ordinary] people, 9 companies, including one company based in Turkey and 2 companies based in the United Arab Emirates.”
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
