Iran sanctions dozens of EU, UK officials over Amini protests

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran said Monday it was imposing sanctions on dozens of EU and UK officials and institutions including Britain’s domestic spy agency and military chiefs ahead of impending European sanctions on the Islamic republic. 

The sanctions were announced by foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani at his weekly press conference and targeted 32 individuals and institutions before a meeting of European Union foreign ministers during which new sanctions against Iran were expected to be declared over its brutal response to the ongoing nationwide demonstrations in the country. 

Some of the sanctioned individuals include Ken McCallum, director general of the UK’s domestic spy agency MI5, as well as Chief of the Defense Staff Sir Tony Radakin. 

Kanaani blamed the EU and UK for “interfering in the domestic affairs of the Islamic republic” while adding that the sanctions are “coming into effect today.” 

Iran has been battered with almost three months of countrywide protests over the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died under suspicious circumstances in custody of the country’s morality police after being accused of violating the dress code for women. 

The UK and European countries have been vocal of Iran’s crackdown on protestors, issuing multiple rounds of sanctions against the Islamic republic while Iran has responded with its own sanctions.

The sanctions coincide with Iran carrying out its second execution over the protests. 

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was publicly hanged less than a month after he was detained for allegedly stabbing two members of the security forces in the city of Mashhad.

At least 488 protesters have been killed and over 18,200 arrested since the protests began almost three months ago, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The execution follows that of Mohsen Shekari, 23, who was hanged on Thursday after allegedly wounding a member of the Basij, a paramilitary group linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

Protests spread throughout the country in the aftermath of the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of the morality police on September 16, sparking a violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, particularly the IRGC and the Basij.

The protests, which authorities describe as “riots”, are on the biggest challenge the regime in Iran have confronted since it was established in 1979. Iran is one of the world’s top executioners and is using this method as an attempt to quell the protests.