EU blacklists 2 Iranian ministers for human rights violations

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - The EU on Monday imposed sanctions of asset freeze and travel ban against 32 Iranians, including two ministers, for “serious human rights violations.”

“The Council (of the European Union) today decided to impose restrictive measures on additional 32 individuals and two entities responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran,” the EU institution representing member states said in a statement after the meeting of foreign affairs ministers.

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili and Education Minister Yousef Nouri are among the new entries on the blacklist for being “responsible for serious human rights violations.”

According to the decision published in the EU’s Official Journal, Esmaeili “has personally and publicly threatened filmmakers who had published a statement asking the security forces to show restraint against peaceful protesters with arrest and work bans.”

It further said: “By being responsible for students’ arbitrary detention in order to reverse anti-government opinions, Nouri violates the basic human right to education.”

Members of the Iranian parliament, high-ranking law enforcement officers, and judges have also been targeted for “the violent crackdown against peaceful protests” and imposing the death penalty on them.

“The European Union and its member states urge the Iranian authorities to stop the violent crackdown against peaceful protests and cease their resort to arbitrary detentions,” the statement said.

The foreign affairs ministers also called on Iran to “end the practice of imposing and carrying out death sentences against protesters” and reverse the existing decisions.

In total, the bloc targets now 196 people and 33 individuals. The measures consist of "an asset freeze, a travel ban to the EU and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available to those listed.”

They also include “a ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications.”