European foreign ministers adopted sanctions on Monday 23 January against 18 individuals and 19 entities for their role in the serious human rights violations in Iran.
“To the Iranian people: we hear you! The EU will continue to support your aspiration for freedom and dignity”, stressed European Council President Charles Michel, adding that this new package of sanctions - the fourth - showed that the EU would not remain inactive in the face of human rights violations in Iran.
The EU decided to sanction the Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth, Hamid Sajjadi, who it says is “responsible for pressuring Iranian athletes into silence and preventing them from taking a stand against the repression in Iran at international level”.
The ‘Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’ is sanctioned, as is its leader.
The Deputy Commander of Operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Abbas Nilfrushan, four parliamentarians, governors, brigadier generals, military and law enforcement officials, officials at Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and Press TV, and a businessman are also subject to restrictive measures.
In addition, the EU has imposed measures on the Communications Regulatory Authority, the Iranian Police Special Forces (NOPO) and provincial corps and operational bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and companies related to cybersecurity, digital and surveillance.
With this new decision, 164 individuals and 31 entities have been sanctioned in connection with serious human rights violations in Iran. Their assets are frozen and they are banned from travelling to the EU.
See the legal acts related to this decision: https://aeur.eu/f/51d
Asked whether the IRGC should be included on the list of terrorist organisations, the High Representative of the Union, Josep Borrell, as well as several ministers, recalled that this depended on a court decision. “This is a matter that cannot be decided without the intervention of a court. A decision of the Court [is needed] in the first place. You can’t say: ‘I consider you a terrorist because I don’t like you’”, he explained upon his arrival at the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)