Canada lays fresh sanctions against senior Iranian officials, entities – National | Globalnews.ca

Canada has imposed additional sanctions on four Iranian individuals and five entities for their human rights violations, Global Affairs Canada said on Friday.

This is Canada’s latest package of sanctions against the Iranian regime since early October due to “its ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and actions that continue to threaten international peace and security,” a press release stated.

READ MORE: Canada bans senior Iranian officials with new ‘terrorism,’ rights abuse designation

“We affirm our solidarity with the people of Iran, who have bravely called out the regime for its human rights abuses — especially those of women and girls,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in a statement.

The list of newly sanctioned individuals and entities includes the following:

• Morteza Talaei, Second Brigadier General of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and former Commander of Tehran’s Law Enforcement Forces
• Ali Ghanaatkar Mavardiani, a senior judge, prosecutor and interrogator for the regime who worked in Evin Prison Court before being appointed the head of the District 24 (Counter-Narcotics) Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran
• Hassan Karami, Commander of the Islamic Republic’s Law Enforcement Forces Special Units
• Safiran Airport Services, an Iranian cargo and commercial airline that has coordinated Russian military flights between Iran and Russia, through which the Iranian regime transferred lethal Iranian-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to Russia
• Baharestan Kish Company, a subsidiary firm of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation that entered into agreements with the Basij Resistance Forces and the IRGC, to render research services in the technology sector, including the development of Shahed-series UAV components
• Javan News Agency, a media outlet under the Basij Cooperative Foundation that disseminates anti-Semitic messaging and the Iranian regime’s propaganda.

Also on the list of expanded sanctions are the Paravar Pars Aerospace Engineering Services and Research Company, and the Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines Company (DAMA).

The final individual on the new list is Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, who is Iran’s minister of information and communication. The U.S. Treasury Department has described him as “a key player in the regime’s censorship and surveillance campaign.”

According to Reuters, the United Nations said on Nov. 29 that more than 300 people have been killed so far and 14,000 arrested in protests that began after the Sept. 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Amini was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Although the protests first focused on Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, they have since transformed into one of the greatest challenges to the ruling clerics since the chaotic years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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— with files from Reuters, The Associated Press and Global’s Rachel Gilmore

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