Submission on the Introduction of Sanctions against Human Rights Violators in Iran
Justice for Iran March 2018
Summary
This submission is made by Justice for Iran for the introduction of sanctions against fifteen individuals as violators of human rights in Iran. Justice for Iran is a non-governmental human rights organization which aims to address and eradicate the practice of impunity that empowers officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to perpetrate widespread human rights violations against their citizens, and to hold them accountable for their actions. This submission calls for the introduction of sanctions against individuals listed below for human rights violations perpetrated during recent anti-government protests in Iran. The anti-government protests in Iran started on 28 December 2017 in the city of Mashhad and spread quickly across the country. The unrest continued for 10 days until 7 January 2018. During this period, protesters marched against the IRI regime and its leaders in dozens of towns and cities across Iran. From the early days of the protests, various security, military and judicial officials blamed the unrest on foreign interference and threatened protesters. From 3 January 2018, and as a result of the heavy crackdown on protesters by security forces, the protests became smaller and less frequent before eventually ending. According to official sources, around 4,000 protesters were detained and at least 25 were killed by government agents killed. In addition, at least three detainees – Sina Ghanbari1, Vahid Heidari2, and Saru Ghahramani3 – died in Tehran’s Evin prison, and detention centres in Arak and Sanandaj respectively.
1 http://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2-HRV.pdf 2 http://justice4iran.org/persian/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/3-HRV.pdf 3 http://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-42698236 The deaths of some of these detainees have been declared suicides. As explained in further detail in this submission, security forces have exerted severe pressure on the families of victims to dissuade them from making calls for inquests into deaths, torture or other violations of human rights. Justice for Iran has identified 15 officials responsible for the violent crackdown on protesters in December 2017-January 2018. As of this writing, none of these officials have been investigated or held accountable for their actions. It is for this reason that Justice for Iran calls for all entities which sanction human rights violators to subject the individuals listed below to sanctions. Justice for Iran submits that the serious violations of human rights of the protesters and detainees combined with the lack of accountability for perpetrators warrants the imposition of sanctions.
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54 53 52 blocked the entire Te Mardom” (Voice of People) replace to it. When Telegram refused shutto down,it Iranian authorities Following blockingthe of Amad News by Telegram, Telegram users set up another channel called “Sedaye was blocked because it “calle Azari Jahromi, asked Telegram directors to shut it down. Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov explained that it protests, publishing videos captured byprotesters. It was blocked after the Communications Minister, The Telegram channel, “Amad News,” has more than 1.5 million members, and was media, particularly Telegram. much of the information about the demonstrations and other relevant developments emerged via social Telegram and Instagram are amongst the most popular social socialthe media networks of “Telegram” and “Instagram” were filtered. The vast majority of Internet users could only connect theto Internet byusing VPNs. From 31 December 2017, the third day of the protests, 2017 media networks responsible for violating the of right Iranians to freedom of access to information by filtering the social As the Minister 15.
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56 55 filtering from Telegram conditional upon “removing terroristic content”. Azari Jahromi had described opposition channels like Amad News “terroristic”as andmade the lifting of protesting channels.” majority of Iranians after our public refusal shutto down Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov tweeted: “Iranian authorities are blocking access to Telegram for the
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