UK Sanctions 13 More Iranian Officials, Entities Over Rights Abuses

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly walks outside Downing Street as he attends the British cabinet's weekly meeting, in London, Britain February 21, 2023.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly walks outside Downing Street as he attends the British cabinet's weekly meeting, in London, Britain February 21, 2023.

The UK government has introduced sanctions on more than a dozen more Iranian individuals and entities over human rights violations.

The list of 13 individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses in Iran, released by the UK Foreign Office on Thursday, includes prison governors overseeing torture and inhumane treatment and organizations charged with collecting private information of regime opponents.

It also covers individuals leading the repression of women through Iran’s compulsory hijab laws, according to a statement by the UK government.

The sanctioned individuals include Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution; Mohammad-Amin Aghamiri, the secretary of Supreme Council of Cyberspace; and Moslem Moein, the chief of the IRGC's Basij Cyberspace Organization.

The IRGC's Cyber Defense Command (CDC) which monitors the emails, websites and online activities of regime opponents, and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (SCCR) which sets Iran’s policies on cultural and educational matters, including wear of the hijab were also sanctioned by the UK government on Thursday.

"Today the UK has sent a clear message to the regime – we will not tolerate this malign behavior and we will hold you to account," said UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in a statement.

"Our new sanctions regime will help to ensure there can be no hiding place for those who seek to do us harm," he added.

Cleverly also said that "the Iranian regime is oppressing its own people, exporting bloodshed in Ukraine and the Middle East, and threatening to kill and kidnap on UK soil."

The Islamic Republic has, in the past few years, been found to have attempted to carry out terror acts on UK soil, including plots to kidnap Iran International journalists, which forced the TV channel to relocate its activities from the London office to Washington DC due to the UK’s inability to protect its citizens on its soil.