Iran Violations May Amount To Crimes Against Humanity -UN Expert

Targeted financial sanctions and travel bans will now apply to 13 Iranian individuals and targeted financial sanctions on one entity involved in the production and supply of drones to Russia.

The statement issued by Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, said the sanctions target those "responsible for egregious human rights abuses and violations in Iran".

Sanctioned targets also include senior law enforcement, political and military figures, including within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime's agency involved in the violent crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa Amini and the continued oppression of the people of Iran.

According to the list seen by Iran International, the commander of the IRGC's Sarallah Base, Mohammad Hossein Zibaee Nejad, also known as Hossein Nejat, is also on the list. Tasked with keeping Tehran secure, it is the most important IRGC ground force HQ in Iran consisting of several of its most important units, which protect key institutions and the offices of the government. The operations deputy of the Police Force, Hossein Sajedinia, also appears on the list. 

Four members of the morality police cited as "responsible for the arrest, detention and ill-treatment of Mahsa Amini" are among those facing the Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions.

In a speech on Sunday in the city of Semnan, Tehran’s Friday Prayer Imam called the popular protests of the past six months a "riot" aimed at ousting the regime. He acknowledged that protesters saw no difference between ‘reformist’ and ‘hardliner’ factions of the Islamic Republic and were bent on overthrowing the regime.

In addition, international assessments show the protests in the past six months have been unprecedented in terms of their size, the largest ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Ahmad Khatami, who is a member of the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts, also made the extreme claim that by the "Woman, Life, Freedom" slogan the protesters are seeking "nudity" in their fight against the hijab.

In its propaganda, the authorities of the Islamic Republic use words such as "nudity" and "bareness" to belittle the fight against the mandatory hijab as women act to defend their fundamental rights and social freedoms.

Following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September, rights groups claim that regime forces have killed over 500 protesters including at least 70 children with brutal suppressive measures across the country.

Iran’s judiciary has also sentenced four protesters to death after sham trials where the young men did not have basic access to lawyers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian repeated on Sunday that the two countries have agreed on such a deal but it is not clear if the claim is true or it is a stunt by the regime. The new snippet of information that was divulged to the media in Amir-Abdollahian’s remarks was that the US and Iran had agreed on the deal March last year and they are tweaking the details through an unnamed third party in recent weeks. 

“We have signed a document in March last year through a representative introduced by the United States from a third country. We consider the issue of prisoner exchange to be a completely human issue. In recent weeks, there have been indirect discussions to update that document regarding the exchange of prisoners," he said. 

The minister added that the basis of any new agreement is the minutes of the meeting that were signed in March last year. “Our opinion is that the American side should pay attention to the human aspects of this issue above all, this is something that is strongly emphasized by us,” he said.

If true, a deal one year ago might have been within the context of a nuclear agreement that never materialized and probably hinged on a US agreeing to free Iran’s frozen funds. It has long been reported that South Korea would free about $7 billion held in escrow by its banks due to US sanctions.

The United States has categorically denied the existence of such a deal, but it can simply be the Biden administration’s tactic not to build up the hopes of the involved families or to avoid international outcry over its covert appeasement of a regime that is condemned by the international community over its gross human rights violation during recent protests and its military assistance to Russia.

Washington has repeatedly expressed concern about the fate of its citizens imprisoned in Iran but also has rejected the existence of such a deal, that can be construed as a failure to stand up against the Islamic Republic’s policy of hostage taking, a practice that started in the early days after the establishment of the regime and has been often used ever since.

In November 1979, a group of leftist students backed by the new revolutionary government occupied the US embassy in Tehran and took 54 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran never condemned the act that ruptured bilateral relations. Tehran denies any policy of hostage taking and insists all foreigners are tried legally. However, it has frequently shown readiness for prisoner exchanges and participated in swaps in the past. 

UN experts and international human rights organizations say that the Islamic Republic takes foreigners hostage to extract concessions from the West. 

Currently, the regime is in the midst of negotiations to bring home one of its former diplomats, who is serving a life sentence in Belgium for his involvement in a plot to bomb a gathering of an exiled dissident group. Belgium's Constitutional Court said in a press release earlier in the month refused to annul a treaty with Iran that could lead to the diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, convicted of terrorism, to be swapped for Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, held hostage in Iran.

Since early March, Iran insists it is doing a prisoner swap with the US in spite of the Biden administration’s categorical denials. The Iranian foreign ministry says the "written agreement has been signed by the official representative of the United States” though has not named the official. 

White House denies such claims, calling it “a cruel lie”, but reiterates that the United States is committed to securing the release of Americans held in Iran.
Three Iranian-American citizens, Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi, and Morad Tahbaz, are still imprisoned in Iran. In exchange for the release of the hostages, in addition to demanding money, the Islamic Republic plans to urge Washington to release the Iranians imprisoned in the US for circumventing sanctions or involvement in terror activities.

In a letter sent from prison and published by Iranwire, Hedayat referred to the killing and execution of youths during the nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic, stressing that she has faith more than ever that victory can be won.

"The Islamic Republic has become the most immoral element in Iranians' daily life and its survival is the negation of our survival, our children and our land, therefore demanding its ouster still makes sense,” underlined Hedayat.

This is not the first time that Hedayat calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic from prison.

Earlier and during the popular uprising against the Islamic regime she explained the difference between the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini and previous protests saying that people detached themselves from political and regime-made Islam this time.

Hedayat was one of the activists who worked on the One Million Signatures campaign to change laws that discriminate against women in Iran. She has been arrested and imprisoned several times.

She was arrested by security forces in Tehran on October 11, 2022, amid the Mahsa Amini protests. After eight days of detention, in a phone call, she informed her family that she was in ward 209 of Evin prison and did not know the reason for her arrest, nor the charges against her.

Farah Pahlavi expressed sympathy with the families of the dead protesters, prisoners and people under pressure in Iran, saying that the essence of Nowruz heralds the victory of truth over lies.

"Nowruz, which always brings joy and hope, will be celebrated this year in a situation in which our nation is mourning its lost ones," she said.

The exiled queen further noted that hundreds of young men and women died with the slogan ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ in confrontation with brutality and darkness, but “their names and memories will be eternal in the history of Iran”.

She further underlined that “my thoughts are with the bereaved mothers and fathers, thousands of Iranians who are imprisoned, and teenagers who have been poisoned in Iranian schools”.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Pahlavi expressed concern over the situation of millions of Iranians who are struggling to earn a living and are victims of the brutality and incompetence of the regime.

She also congratulated the arrival of the ancient Iranian tradition Nowruz which is a “sign of stability, continuity and national identity.”

Iran has been witnessing nationwide protests within the past six months, during which time, regime agents have killed over 500 people so far and executed several who were arrested during demonstrations. Thousands more have been arrested arbitrarily.