Governments Should Blacklist Human Rights Violators
(30 September 2010) The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urged governments from around the world to blacklist officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran implicated in grave human rights violations, thus recognizing their role as perpetrators in Iran’s grave human rights crisis and making it impossible for them to travel and keep assets abroad.
The Campaign is urging the governments of Canada, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and members of the European Union in particular, countries in which known Iranian human rights offenders are most likely to hold assets or travel, to institute asset freezes and travel bans against them.
The Campaign welcomed an announcement by the United States government on 29 September 2010, naming eight top Iranian government officials as targets of such financial freezes and travel bans.
“Members of the international community can and should blacklist those Iranian officials responsible for grave human rights violations of their citizens,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.
“To do so sends a loud, clear and constructive message that these crimes will not be tolerated, and that the international community will do all it can to combat the endemic impunity in Iran, ” he added.
In June 2010, the Campaign published “Men of Violence: Perpetrators of the Post-Election Crackdown,” a report naming fifteen Iranian government officials and supporters implicated in gross human rights violations against Iranian citizens.
The eight individuals sanctioned by the US government are: Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC); Sadeq Mahsouli, current Minister of Welfare and Security and former Minister of the Interior; Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, current Prosecutor General of Iran and former Minister of Intelligence; Saeed Mortazavi, former Prosecutor-General of Tehran; Heydar Moslehi, Minister of Intelligence; Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, current Minister of the Interior and former Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces for Law Enforcement; Ahmad-Reza Radan, Deputy Chief of Iran’s National Police; and Hossein Taeb, current Deputy IRGC Commander for Intelligence and former Commander of the IRGC’s Basij Forces.
In addition to the above, the Campaign also urges blacklisting of the following human rights violators:
- Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, Head of the Iranian Police,
- Abolghassem Salavati, Presiding Judge of Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts,
- Seyed Hassan Firouzabadi, Chief of Staff of the Joint Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
- Mohammad Moghisseh, Presiding Judge of Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts,
- Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Secretary General of the Guardian Council,
- Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, Head of the Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom and a member of the Assembly of Experts,
- Yadollah Javani, Head of the IRGC Political Office,
- Rouhollah Hosseinian, Member of Parliament,
- Ali Saeedi, Representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC,
- Hossein Shariatmadari, Managing editor of Kayhan Newspaper,
- Ezatollah Zarghami, Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), and
- Mohammad Reza Naghdi, Commander of Basij Forces.
