23 February 2011
U.S. Designates Iranian Officials for Human Rights Abuses
Washington — The U.S. State and Treasury departments have announced the designation of two Iranian officials for “serious human rights abuses in Iran.”
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi and Mohammed Reza Naqdi are “two of the most egregious perpetrators of human rights abuses,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said at the department’s daily news briefing February 23. The two are now subject to asset freezes and a visa ban, including a block on any transactions with people in the United States.
Adam Szubin, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, commended the designations in a statement February 23, saying Dolatabadi and Naqdi “have no place in the international financial system.”
Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner also praised the designations February 23.
“Today’s decision underscores our enduring commitment to support Iranians seeking to exercise their universal rights and expresses our solidarity with victims of torture, persecution and arbitrary detention,” he said in a joint statement from the departments of State and Treasury.
The statement said Dolatabadi and Naqdi have been “responsible for, or complicit in, serious human rights abuses in Iran since the June 2009 disputed presidential election.”
Crowley said Dolatabadi, who was appointed prosecutor-general of Tehran in August 2009, has “prosecuted Iranians for exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion, and in many cases sought and won the death penalty against individuals who were simply exercising their right to peaceful assembly.” The statement said Dolatabadi’s office “has also targeted and arrested reformists, human rights activists and members of the media as part of a broad crackdown on the political opposition.”
The statement said Naqdi has commanded the Basij militia since October 2009. Crowley said that under Naqdi’s command, the Basij has engaged in a “string of actions … taken to suppress dissent and in many cases violently.” The forces were responsible for the violent response to the December 2009 Ashura Day protests, which resulted in as many as 15 deaths and the arrests of hundreds of protesters.
The designations were made under an executive order signed by President Obama in September 2010 “to provide the United States with new tools” targeting human rights abusers in the Iranian government, the statement said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
