Canada announces new Iran sanctions amid protests over Mahsa Amini death

Canada has imposed additional sanctions on six Iranian individuals and four entities for participating in or enabling human rights violations against women and spreading propaganda, Global Affairs Canada said on Wednesday.

This is Canada’s third package of sanctions against Iran due to “its ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and continued actions to destabilize regional peace and security,” a press release stated.

The list of individuals include Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister Seyyed Majid Mirahmadi; Mohammad Karami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Operational Base in Sistan and Baluchistan; Ezzatollah Zarghami, former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation; Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former head of the Iranian National Security and Foreign Policy Commission; Soghra Khodadadi Taghanaki, current director of Qarchak Women’s Prison; and Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, former speaker of the Constitutional Council.

The statement describes the sanctioned individuals and entities as “the worst offenders” that have carried out such violations, “including against Iranian women, and disseminated propaganda to justify the Iranian regime’s repression and persecution of its citizens.”

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Protests have erupted across Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was captured for not wearing her hijab properly, as dictated by the country’s regime. She died after falling into a coma while in the custody of Iran’s “morality police” on Sept. 16.

Her death has caused many to take to the street, fuelled by the Iranian regime’s ongoing oppression of women and citizens’ call for democracy to overthrow the government.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in the press release that Canadians have witnessed the courage of Iranian women, youths and citizens as “they risk their lives to demand their human rights.”

“Canada will continue to support them by using all tools at our disposal to respond to the Iranian regime’s violations of human rights and its threats to regional peace and security,” said Joly.

More to come…