Canada adds more people, entities to sanctions list for Iran’s ‘gross human rights violations’

Law360 Canada (October 13, 2022, 1:01 PM EDT) -- Canada has added 17 individuals and three entities to its sanctions list under the federal Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations in response to the targets’ participation in “gross human rights violations, including against Iranian women,” and their perpetuation of “disinformation activities to justify the Iranian regime’s repression and persecution of its citizens.”

Effective Oct. 11, the named people and entities were added to the list that already included 66 Iranian individuals and 170 Iranian entities.

The newly added entities are the newspaper Kayhan, Tasnim News Agency and Nour News Agency.

Those targeted by the sanctions are subject to broad dealings bans that were announced by the Liberal government Oct. 3, and which newly listed 25 individuals and nine entities, including the country’s so-called morality police and its leadership. The sanctions effectively freeze any assets the targets may hold in Canada and also render the listed individuals inadmissible to Canada under the federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

The latest sanctions against Iran follow ongoing protests within Iran against its theocratic government that were sparked by the morality police reportedly beating to death a young Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, because of how she wore her hijab.

“The actions of the Iranian regime speak for themselves — the world has watched for years as it has pursued its agenda of violence, fear and propaganda,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said in a Global Affairs announcement Oct. 13.

“Canada will continue to defend human rights, and we will continue to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people, including women and youth, who are courageously demanding a future where their human rights will be fully respected.”

Canada’s sanctions list includes:

• Saeed Mortazavi, the Iranian Revolutionary Court prosecutor who ordered the torture of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi who died in 2003 after being raped, beaten and wrongfully imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.
• Amir Hatami,  brigadier general in the Iranian regular army, senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces and a former minister of defence.
• Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan, a conservative state-controlled newspaper that regularly publishes anti-Semitic propaganda, including Holocaust denial, and threats against Israel, the United States and Gulf states.
• Manouchehr Amanollahi, commander of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces in the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province in southwestern Iran.
• Gholamreza Ziaei, prison director of Rajaei Shahr (from October 2017 to June 2019) and Evin (from July 2019 to June 2020).
• Peyman Jebelli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
• Ali Larijani, member of Iran’s Expediency Council, former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official and former speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also known as the Iranian Majlis or Iranian Parliament.
• Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2021.

On Oct. 7, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Canada’s intent to implement several new measures to respond to Iran’s ongoing human rights violations and threats to regional peace and security, including listing the Iranian regime and top leaders from the IRGC by pursuing a designation under the IRPA; expanding sanctions against the IRGC and introducing a new tailored regulation to ensure no sanctioned individual connected to the IRGC can enter Canada, pending the passage of Bill S-8; and investing $76 million to strengthen Canada’s capacity to implement sanctions and move more quickly to freeze and seize sanctioned individuals’ assets, including through a dedicated bureau at Global Affairs Canada and additional support to the RCMP to investigate and identify assets and gather evidence.

The government also committed to using all its tools against Iranian human rights violators, including Magnitsky sanctions under the federal Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, which authorizes the restriction and seizure of financial assets and property in Canada that are held, directly or indirectly, by foreign nationals responsible for gross violations of human rights.

In 2012, Canada designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a supporter of terrorism under the State Immunity Act. In concert with the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, this listing allows victims to sue Iran in Canada for losses or damages from an act of terrorism with links to Iran committed anywhere in the world.

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