TEHRAN
The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and leaders of government agencies after the death of a woman in police custody sparked protests and worldwide condemnation.
At least nine protesters and two security force officers have been killed in violent demonstrations since the weekend following 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death.
The morality police detained Miss Amini last week, saying she didn’t properly cover her hair with a headscarf – known as the hijab – which is mandatory for Iranian women. Miss Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.
The US Treasury designated the leaders of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Army’s Ground Forces, the Basij Resistance Forces, and other law enforcement agencies for the sanctions – which deny them access to their properties and bank accounts held in the US.
“These officials oversee organisations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women’s rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha’i community,” the Treasury said in a news release.
Police say Miss Amini died of a heart attack and deny she was mistreated, and the government released video footage purporting to show the moment she collapsed.
But her family says she had no history of heart trouble, and her death in police custody has triggered daring displays of defiance from protesters, in the face of beatings and possible arrest.
Independent experts affiliated with the UN said on Thursday that reports suggested she was severely beaten by the morality police, without offering evidence.
Niloufar Hamedi, a journalist who took photographs at the hospital after Ms Amini’s death, was arrested on Thursday, according to the reporter’s lawyer, Mohammadali Kamfirouzi.
He said her house was raided.
