EU sanctions Iran ‘morality’ police, minister

LUXEMBOURG: The EU on Monday sanctioned Iran´s “morality” police for the fatal beating in custody of Mahsa Amini and other security forces for the repression of subsequent protests.

Also sanctioned were the Iranian minister overseeing internet curbs and the cyber division of its Revolutionary Guards. The sanctions list, published in the bloc´s official administrative gazette, also blacklisted the chiefs of the so-called morality police, the Revolutionary Guard´s Basij paramilitary force, a uniformed branch of the national police, and officials in charge of those forces.

Iran vowed an ´immediate” response to the sanctions. The 11 individuals and members of the four entities named in the sanctions are subject to EU visa bans and asset freezes. Ahead of the blacklist´s publication, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said of the “morality” police that it is a “word that is not really appropriate when you see the crimes that are being committed there”.

The list was drawn up before the latest dramatic turn of events in Iran: a deadly fire at Tehran´s notorious Evin prison, where the regime holds Iranian political prisoners, as well as dual nationals and foreigners.

The EU has been alarmed at the Iranian regime´s bloody crackdown on protests sparked by the death a month ago of Amini, a 22-year-old taken into custody by morality police who arrest women deemed to wear Islamic headscarves inappropriately. The demonstrations have since morphed into anti-regime street protests, with those taking part demanding the end of the mullah-led regime.