12 Apr 2021; MEMO: The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on eight high-ranking Iranian officials for a November 2019 crackdown on protests, including the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Anadolu Agency reported.
The European foreign ministers decided to add eight people and three entities to the bloc's blacklist for human rights violations in Iran.
According to the act published in the Official Journal of the EU, the restricted measures were introduced in response to "the widespread and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian security forces, which led to high numbers of deaths and injuries during the response to the November 2019 demonstrations."
The bloc imposed asset freezes and travel bans on six high-ranking security officers, a governor, and a prison director, as well as other restrictive measures against three Iranian prisons.
The sanctions include Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, for taking decisions to deploy forces "that used lethal force to suppress the November 2019 protests in Iran, causing the deaths of and injuries to unarmed protesters and other civilians."
The foreign ministers also decided to extend the Iran human rights sanctions regime until April 13, 2022.
There are currently 89 individuals and four entities on the EU's blacklist, which was established in 2011.
