# Official Journal L 20I/2023

| | ISSN 1977-0677 |
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| Official Journal
  of the European Union | L 020I |
| | |
| English edition | Legislation | Volume 6623 January 2023 |

ISSN 1977-0677

Official Journal

of the European Union

L 020I

English edition

Legislation

Volume 6623 January 2023

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| Contents | | II   Non-legislative acts | page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | REGULATIONS |
| | * | Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/152 of 23 January 2023 implementing Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Iran | 1 |
| | | DECISIONS |
| | * | Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2023/153 of 23 January 2023 implementing Decision 2011/235/CFSP concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities in view of the situation in Iran | 23 |

Contents

II   Non-legislative acts

page

REGULATIONS

*

Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/152 of 23 January 2023 implementing Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Iran

1

DECISIONS

*

Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2023/153 of 23 January 2023 implementing Decision 2011/235/CFSP concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities in view of the situation in Iran

23

| EN | Acts whose titles are printed in light type are those relating to day-to-day management of agricultural matters, and are generally valid for a limited period.
  The titles of all other Acts are printed in bold type and preceded by an asterisk. |
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EN

Acts whose titles are printed in light type are those relating to day-to-day management of agricultural matters, and are generally valid for a limited period.

The titles of all other Acts are printed in bold type and preceded by an asterisk.

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II Non-legislative acts

REGULATIONS

| 23.1.2023 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | LI 20/1 |
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23.1.2023

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

LI 20/1

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COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2023/152

of 23 January 2023

implementing Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Iran

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 of 12 April 2011 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Iran (1), and in particular Article 12(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,

Whereas:

| (1) | On 12 April 2011, the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 359/2011. |
| --- | --- |

(1)

On 12 April 2011, the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 359/2011.

| (2) | On 25 September 2022, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a declaration on behalf of the Union deploring the widespread and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian security forces against non-violent protestors, noting that it had resulted in the loss of lives as well as a large number of injuries. The declaration also spelled out that those responsible for the killing of Mahsa Amini must be held accountable, and called on the Iranian authorities to ensure transparent and credible investigations to clarify the number of deaths and arrests, to release all non-violent protestors and to provide due process to all detainees. Furthermore, the declaration stressed that Iran’s decision to severely restrict internet access and block instant messaging platforms blatantly violates freedom of expression. Finally, the declaration stated that the Union will consider all the options at its disposal to address the killing of Mahsa Amini and the way Iranian security forces have responded to the ensuing demonstrations. |
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(2)

On 25 September 2022, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a declaration on behalf of the Union deploring the widespread and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian security forces against non-violent protestors, noting that it had resulted in the loss of lives as well as a large number of injuries. The declaration also spelled out that those responsible for the killing of Mahsa Amini must be held accountable, and called on the Iranian authorities to ensure transparent and credible investigations to clarify the number of deaths and arrests, to release all non-violent protestors and to provide due process to all detainees. Furthermore, the declaration stressed that Iran’s decision to severely restrict internet access and block instant messaging platforms blatantly violates freedom of expression. Finally, the declaration stated that the Union will consider all the options at its disposal to address the killing of Mahsa Amini and the way Iranian security forces have responded to the ensuing demonstrations.

| (3) | In this context, and in line with the Union’s commitment to address all issues of concern with Iran, including the human rights situation, 18 persons and 19 entities should be included in the list of natural and legal persons, entities and bodies subject to restrictive measures set out in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 359/2011. |
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(3)

In this context, and in line with the Union’s commitment to address all issues of concern with Iran, including the human rights situation, 18 persons and 19 entities should be included in the list of natural and legal persons, entities and bodies subject to restrictive measures set out in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 359/2011.

| (4) | Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 should therefore be amended accordingly, |
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(4)

Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 359/2011 is amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 23 January 2023.

For the Council

The President

J. BORRELL FONTELLES

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(1)  
  OJ L 100, 14.4.2011, p. 1.

1

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ANNEX

The following persons and entities are added to the list of natural and legal persons, entities and bodies set out in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 359/2011:

Persons

| | Name | Identifying information | Reasons | Date of listing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ‘156. | SAJJADI Seyed Hamid Hazaveh
  هزاوه حمید سید سجادی | DOB: 21.3.1969
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth | Hamid Sajjadi is Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth.
  He is responsible for pressuring Iran’s athletes into silence and for preventing them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran. He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber who competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in Seoul in the autumn of 2022. After her competition, Rekabi was tricked into entering the Iranian embassy building in Seoul, where her passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the orders of the authorities in Tehran. Upon her likely forced arrival in Tehran, she was interrogated by two of Iran’s political and sports institutions and met with Sajjadi. In this meeting, she was coerced into making a statement apologising for competing without a hijab and was threatened with the confiscation of family land. In December 2022, it became clear that Elnaz Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan had been demolished.
  Hamid Sajjadi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 157. | GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi
  گلپایگانی سید محمد صالح هاشمی | DOB: 1967
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: Head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice)
  Associated entities: Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), Morality Police | Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani has been the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (also known as the Office or Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) since 25 August 2021. The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution which is responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.
  In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).
  As the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil, Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 158. | ASGARI Hassan
  حسن عسگری
  a.k.a. ASKARI Hassan
  حسن عسگری | POB: Bijar, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: governor of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province
  Associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Hassan Asgari is the governor of the city of Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province and a former Commander of the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces.
  As governor of Sanandaj, he is responsible for the violent and brutal response in that city to the protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022. When a 16-year-old protester was reportedly killed by security forces in Sanandaj, Asgari and other officials stated that she died of a drug overdose, potentially by suicide. Providing false alternative causes of death for protesters killed by security forces is a common tactic used by Iranian officials to evade accountability for their human rights abuses.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 159. | KHIABANI Hossein Modarres
  مدرس حسین خیابانی | DOB: March 1968/1969
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: former governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province | Hossein Modarres Khiabani was the governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province from September 2021 to December 2022 and was responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.
  During his time as governor, the LEF and other security forces cracked down on various protests and used excessive violence against protesters. There is wide evidence of the use of disproportionate force that led to the killing of at least 66 people in the city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province on 30 September 2022.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 160. | KOUSHA Esmaeil Zarei
  کوشا اسماعیل زارعی
  a.k.a. KOSHA Ismail
  کشا یسمیل | DOB: 1978
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: governor of Kurdistan province | Esmaeil Zarei Kousha is the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province and responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.
  As such, he is responsible for the brutal response and excessive use of violence by the LEF and security forces to the protests held in Kurdistan following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 161. | KOWSARI Mohammad Esmail
  اسماعیل محمد کوثری | DOB: 3.5.1955
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mohammad Esmail Kowsari has been a member of the Iranian Parliament (“MP”) since 2020. He is a hard-line lawmaker and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member. Before becoming an MP, Kowsari was the commander of the IRGC’s Sarallah headquarters in Tehran from 2017 to 2020.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has repeatedly threatened security forces with consequences if they do not fulfil their duty and crack down on protests. He has also called for more military action against peaceful protests. As an MP, he has urged the Iranian judiciary to sentence protestors to death.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 162. | MIRSALIM Mostafa
  میرسلیم مستفا
  a.k.a. MIR-SALIM Mostafa; MIRSALIM Sayyid Mostafa Agha
  میر-سالم مستفا
  میرسلیم سید مستفا آقا | DOB: 9.6.1947
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Passport no: Q5956077 (Iran)
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mostafa Mirsalim is a member of the Iranian Parliament.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He has called for protestors to be executed in a matter of days after their arrest. He also frequently attacks the free press and is in favour of restricting social media.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 163. | NAGHDALI Mohammad Taghi
  تقی محمد نقدعلی | DOB: 6.6.1972
  POB: Khomeinishahr- Isfahan, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mohammad Taghi Naghdali is a member of the Iranian Parliament and member of the Parliament’s legal commission.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He also frequently attacks the free press and is involved in drafting laws to restrict the free flow of information.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 164. | GHAZANFARABADI Mousa
  موسا غضنفرآبادی | DOB: 1966
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament; head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission | Mousa Ghazanfarabadi is a member of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission. As such, he is responsible for the judicial and legal review of the proposed ministerial plans in Parliament, the review and approval of plans related to criminal law as well as investigating the performance of the country's officials and managers from a judicial and legal point of view.
  He has not condemned the serious human rights violations of Iranian officials during the 2022/2023 protests. On the contrary, he has personally stated that women who violate hijab rules should be deprived of social rights and has argued for the use of force when dealing with them. He is also whitewashing the crimes committed by Iranian forces by defending the government’s version of events surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 165. | NOROOZI Ahmad
  نوروزی احمد
  a.k.a. NOROUZI Ahmad; NEWROUZI Ahmad; NAWROUZI Ahmad | DOB: 1988
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service; CEO of Press TV
  Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB); Press TV | Ahmad Noroozi is the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service and the CEO of Press TV, the main pro-government English language channel that oversees IRIB’s foreign-language outlets.
  IRIB is the Iranian state-run media corporation and has broadcast hundreds of forced confessions by Iranian, dual-national and international detainees in Iran. IRIB and its subsidiaries act as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people. IRIB has produced and recently broadcast interviews of individuals being forced to confess that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests but died due to accidental, unrelated causes.
  Press TV is responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to the Kurdish and Arab minorities, violating internationally recognised rights to a fair trial and due process.
  In his capacity as head of IRIB and as CEO of Press TV, Ahmad Noroozi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 166. | POURANVARI Youssef
  یوسف پورانواری
  a.k.a. POURANVARI Youssuf | DOB: 26.5.1983
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  National ID no: 0492699836 (Iran)
  Function: director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel
  Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) | Youssef Pouranvari is the director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel.
  As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally. Furthermore, IRIB regularly broadcasts false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and uses falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual-nationals and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programmes have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonise human rights activists, and legitimise repression against religious minority groups such as the Baha’i community.
  In his capacity as director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the IRIB foreign-language flagship channel, Youssef Pouranvari contributes to the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 167. | KADEM Ahmad
  کادم احمد | Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) regional headquarters Karbala | Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
  During the 2022 protests, IRGC troops under his command conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the Khusestan and Lorestan regions, including in the towns of Khorramabad (Lorestan) and Izeh (Khusestan). IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters. As overall commander of the IRGC troops in these regions, Kadem is responsible for violence against protesters conducted by those troops.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 168. | AZIMI Mohammad Nazar
  نظر محمد عظیمی,
  a.k.a. AZIMI Mohammadnazar
  عظیمی موهاممادنازار | Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf | Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.
  During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, he is responsible for the IRGC violence against protestors in Kermanshah province.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 169. | NILFRUSHAN Abbas Mortaza
  نیلفروشان عباس مرتاضا
  a.k.a. NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFRUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas Mortaza
  نیلفروشان دردشتی عباس | DOB: 23.8.1966
  POB: Isfahan, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Passport no: P46631463 (Iran)
  Function: deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Abbas Nilfrushan is the deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and responsible for the IRGC Operations Command, one of the security organisations directly in charge of protest suppression.
  In this capacity, he has framed the 2022 civil grassroots protest movement as a terrorist movement and a direct security threat to Iran, thereby legitimising the harsh response to the peaceful protests.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 170. | MOEIN Moslem
  مسلم معین | DOB: 22.9.1985
  POB: Eslamabad, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  National ID no: 3341588477 (Iran)
  Address: Part 7, Block 25, Ground Floor, 16th Street, Sarvestan Street, Chaghamirza Phase 2 Shahid Mehrabi, Kermanshah, Iran
  Function: head of the Basji Resistance Force (Basij) Cyberspace Headquarters | Moslem Moein is a senior official in the EU-listed Basij Resistance Force (Basij), the infamous volunteer paramilitary organisation operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with branches throughout Iran.
  The Basij has played a key role in the regime’s deadly crackdown on the protests that have swept the country since September 2022. As chief of the Basij Cyberspace Headquarters, Moein oversees efforts to control and censor Iranians’ online activities. He has spoken publicly about the Basij’s priority of monitoring Iranians’ use of the internet. Additionally, Moein has advocated for the development of Iran’s national intranet, which could allow the regime to disconnect Iran from the global internet. The Iranian government continues to filter and block the free flow of information in Iran.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 171. | KARAMI Mohammad
  محمد کرمی | DOB: 27.1.1966
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Passport no: K50849392 (Iran), expires 23.9.2024
  Function: Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds for Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province | Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds, which commands IRGC troops in Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province.
  Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, Karami is responsible for the IRGC’s violence against protestors in Sistan and Baluchestan province, in particular around “bloody Friday”.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 172. | JAVIDAN Ali Akbar
  جاویدان علی اکبر | DOB: 21.3.1967
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province | Ali Akbar Javidan has been the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province since June 2019.
  In this capacity, he is responsible for ordering the violent reaction of the LEF to the 2022 protests in Kermanshah. He is also responsible for ensuring the LEF’s strict implementation of morality policies that severely violate human rights, including through the active repression of women who do not comply with headscarf codes. He is also responsible for the LEF’s arrests of women during the July 2022 protests. He is responsible for violence, discrimination, cruel and degrading behaviour, and arbitrary detention of women.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 173. | AZARPENDAR Abbas
  آذرپندار عباس | POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co; regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies | Abbas Azarpendar is the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, which is a key intermediary in Iran, providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.
  During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, Radis Vira Tejarat Co’s equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.
  Azarpendar is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023’ |

Name

Identifying information

Reasons

Date of listing

‘156.

SAJJADI Seyed Hamid Hazaveh

هزاوه حمید سید سجادی

DOB: 21.3.1969

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth

Hamid Sajjadi is Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth.

He is responsible for pressuring Iran’s athletes into silence and for preventing them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran. He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber who competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in Seoul in the autumn of 2022. After her competition, Rekabi was tricked into entering the Iranian embassy building in Seoul, where her passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the orders of the authorities in Tehran. Upon her likely forced arrival in Tehran, she was interrogated by two of Iran’s political and sports institutions and met with Sajjadi. In this meeting, she was coerced into making a statement apologising for competing without a hijab and was threatened with the confiscation of family land. In December 2022, it became clear that Elnaz Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan had been demolished.

Hamid Sajjadi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

157.

GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi

گلپایگانی سید محمد صالح هاشمی

DOB: 1967

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: Head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice)

Associated entities: Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), Morality Police

Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani has been the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (also known as the Office or Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) since 25 August 2021. The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution which is responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.

In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).

As the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil, Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

158.

ASGARI Hassan

حسن عسگری

a.k.a. ASKARI Hassan

حسن عسگری

POB: Bijar, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: governor of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province

Associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Hassan Asgari is the governor of the city of Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province and a former Commander of the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces.

As governor of Sanandaj, he is responsible for the violent and brutal response in that city to the protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022. When a 16-year-old protester was reportedly killed by security forces in Sanandaj, Asgari and other officials stated that she died of a drug overdose, potentially by suicide. Providing false alternative causes of death for protesters killed by security forces is a common tactic used by Iranian officials to evade accountability for their human rights abuses.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

159.

KHIABANI Hossein Modarres

مدرس حسین خیابانی

DOB: March 1968/1969

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: former governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province

Hossein Modarres Khiabani was the governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province from September 2021 to December 2022 and was responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.

During his time as governor, the LEF and other security forces cracked down on various protests and used excessive violence against protesters. There is wide evidence of the use of disproportionate force that led to the killing of at least 66 people in the city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province on 30 September 2022.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

160.

KOUSHA Esmaeil Zarei

کوشا اسماعیل زارعی

a.k.a. KOSHA Ismail

کشا یسمیل

DOB: 1978

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: governor of Kurdistan province

Esmaeil Zarei Kousha is the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province and responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.

As such, he is responsible for the brutal response and excessive use of violence by the LEF and security forces to the protests held in Kurdistan following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

161.

KOWSARI Mohammad Esmail

اسماعیل محمد کوثری

DOB: 3.5.1955

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mohammad Esmail Kowsari has been a member of the Iranian Parliament (“MP”) since 2020. He is a hard-line lawmaker and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member. Before becoming an MP, Kowsari was the commander of the IRGC’s Sarallah headquarters in Tehran from 2017 to 2020.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has repeatedly threatened security forces with consequences if they do not fulfil their duty and crack down on protests. He has also called for more military action against peaceful protests. As an MP, he has urged the Iranian judiciary to sentence protestors to death.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

162.

MIRSALIM Mostafa

میرسلیم مستفا

a.k.a. MIR-SALIM Mostafa; MIRSALIM Sayyid Mostafa Agha

میر-سالم مستفا

میرسلیم سید مستفا آقا

DOB: 9.6.1947

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Passport no: Q5956077 (Iran)

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mostafa Mirsalim is a member of the Iranian Parliament.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He has called for protestors to be executed in a matter of days after their arrest. He also frequently attacks the free press and is in favour of restricting social media.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

163.

NAGHDALI Mohammad Taghi

تقی محمد نقدعلی

DOB: 6.6.1972

POB: Khomeinishahr- Isfahan, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mohammad Taghi Naghdali is a member of the Iranian Parliament and member of the Parliament’s legal commission.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He also frequently attacks the free press and is involved in drafting laws to restrict the free flow of information.

He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

164.

GHAZANFARABADI Mousa

موسا غضنفرآبادی

DOB: 1966

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament; head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission

Mousa Ghazanfarabadi is a member of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission. As such, he is responsible for the judicial and legal review of the proposed ministerial plans in Parliament, the review and approval of plans related to criminal law as well as investigating the performance of the country's officials and managers from a judicial and legal point of view.

He has not condemned the serious human rights violations of Iranian officials during the 2022/2023 protests. On the contrary, he has personally stated that women who violate hijab rules should be deprived of social rights and has argued for the use of force when dealing with them. He is also whitewashing the crimes committed by Iranian forces by defending the government’s version of events surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini.

He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

165.

NOROOZI Ahmad

نوروزی احمد

a.k.a. NOROUZI Ahmad; NEWROUZI Ahmad; NAWROUZI Ahmad

DOB: 1988

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service; CEO of Press TV

Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB); Press TV

Ahmad Noroozi is the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service and the CEO of Press TV, the main pro-government English language channel that oversees IRIB’s foreign-language outlets.

IRIB is the Iranian state-run media corporation and has broadcast hundreds of forced confessions by Iranian, dual-national and international detainees in Iran. IRIB and its subsidiaries act as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people. IRIB has produced and recently broadcast interviews of individuals being forced to confess that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests but died due to accidental, unrelated causes.

Press TV is responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to the Kurdish and Arab minorities, violating internationally recognised rights to a fair trial and due process.

In his capacity as head of IRIB and as CEO of Press TV, Ahmad Noroozi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

166.

POURANVARI Youssef

یوسف پورانواری

a.k.a. POURANVARI Youssuf

DOB: 26.5.1983

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

National ID no: 0492699836 (Iran)

Function: director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel

Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

Youssef Pouranvari is the director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel.

As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally. Furthermore, IRIB regularly broadcasts false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and uses falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual-nationals and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programmes have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonise human rights activists, and legitimise repression against religious minority groups such as the Baha’i community.

In his capacity as director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the IRIB foreign-language flagship channel, Youssef Pouranvari contributes to the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

167.

KADEM Ahmad

کادم احمد

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) regional headquarters Karbala

Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

During the 2022 protests, IRGC troops under his command conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the Khusestan and Lorestan regions, including in the towns of Khorramabad (Lorestan) and Izeh (Khusestan). IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters. As overall commander of the IRGC troops in these regions, Kadem is responsible for violence against protesters conducted by those troops.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

168.

AZIMI Mohammad Nazar

نظر محمد عظیمی,

a.k.a. AZIMI Mohammadnazar

عظیمی موهاممادنازار

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf

Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, he is responsible for the IRGC violence against protestors in Kermanshah province.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

169.

NILFRUSHAN Abbas Mortaza

نیلفروشان عباس مرتاضا

a.k.a. NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFRUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas Mortaza

نیلفروشان دردشتی عباس

DOB: 23.8.1966

POB: Isfahan, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Passport no: P46631463 (Iran)

Function: deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Abbas Nilfrushan is the deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and responsible for the IRGC Operations Command, one of the security organisations directly in charge of protest suppression.

In this capacity, he has framed the 2022 civil grassroots protest movement as a terrorist movement and a direct security threat to Iran, thereby legitimising the harsh response to the peaceful protests.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

170.

MOEIN Moslem

مسلم معین

DOB: 22.9.1985

POB: Eslamabad, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

National ID no: 3341588477 (Iran)

Address: Part 7, Block 25, Ground Floor, 16th Street, Sarvestan Street, Chaghamirza Phase 2 Shahid Mehrabi, Kermanshah, Iran

Function: head of the Basji Resistance Force (Basij) Cyberspace Headquarters

Moslem Moein is a senior official in the EU-listed Basij Resistance Force (Basij), the infamous volunteer paramilitary organisation operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with branches throughout Iran.

The Basij has played a key role in the regime’s deadly crackdown on the protests that have swept the country since September 2022. As chief of the Basij Cyberspace Headquarters, Moein oversees efforts to control and censor Iranians’ online activities. He has spoken publicly about the Basij’s priority of monitoring Iranians’ use of the internet. Additionally, Moein has advocated for the development of Iran’s national intranet, which could allow the regime to disconnect Iran from the global internet. The Iranian government continues to filter and block the free flow of information in Iran.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

171.

KARAMI Mohammad

محمد کرمی

DOB: 27.1.1966

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Passport no: K50849392 (Iran), expires 23.9.2024

Function: Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds for Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province

Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds, which commands IRGC troops in Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province.

Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, Karami is responsible for the IRGC’s violence against protestors in Sistan and Baluchestan province, in particular around “bloody Friday”.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

172.

JAVIDAN Ali Akbar

جاویدان علی اکبر

DOB: 21.3.1967

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province

Ali Akbar Javidan has been the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province since June 2019.

In this capacity, he is responsible for ordering the violent reaction of the LEF to the 2022 protests in Kermanshah. He is also responsible for ensuring the LEF’s strict implementation of morality policies that severely violate human rights, including through the active repression of women who do not comply with headscarf codes. He is also responsible for the LEF’s arrests of women during the July 2022 protests. He is responsible for violence, discrimination, cruel and degrading behaviour, and arbitrary detention of women.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

173.

AZARPENDAR Abbas

آذرپندار عباس

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co; regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies

Abbas Azarpendar is the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, which is a key intermediary in Iran, providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.

During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, Radis Vira Tejarat Co’s equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Azarpendar is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023’

Entities

| | Name | Identifying information | Reasons | Date of listing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ‘13. | Ravin Academy
  آکادمی راوین | Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Date of registration: 2019
  Registration number: 49135
  Principal place of business: Second Floor, No 36, Naqdi Street, North Sohrevardi Street, Shahid Ghandi-Niloufar Neighbourhood, Tehran, Iran | Ravin Academy is an Iran-based cyber security company which provides cyber security education and training in both defensive and offensive fields as well as hacker training.
  In addition, Ravin Academy operates on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and supports them in recruiting hackers.
  Hackers trained at the Ravin Academy have been involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime, thereby repressing the protests.
  Therefore, Ravin Academy is responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 14. | Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company
  شرکت سامان گستر سحاب پرداز با مسئولیت محدود
  a.k.a. Sahab Pardaz
  سحاب پرداز | Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Principal place of business:
  Tehran, No 22, Khorramshahr Street
  Tehran, North Shohvardi Street, Korramshahr Street, Number 24, Floor 1 | Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is an Iran-based company providing social-media filtering services.
  It is engaged in censorship and surveillance activities for the Government of Iran, including during the 2022 protests, that prohibit, limit or penalise the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran, or that limit access to print or broadcast media.
  Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 15. | Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA)
  ارتباطات و مقررات تنظیم سازمان رادیویی

  a.k.a. Communication Regulation Authority (CRA) | Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Associated entity: Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) | The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) is under the authority of the Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The CRA enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter internet content through a spyware called SIAM.
  During the 2022 protests, the CRA used its control of internet access and mobile phones to track protestors and create a detailed picture of dissidents’ and protesters’ activities for the authorities to use at their will. The CRA is therefore responsible for supporting the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.
  The CRA is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 16. | Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil
  ستاد امر به معروف و نهی از منکر
  a.k.a. Office for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil; Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; Setad-PV
  ستاد پو | Type of entity: government institution
  Place of registration: Iran
  Principal place of business: Iran
  Associated individuals: GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi, head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil
  Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) | The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution, responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.
  In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).
  The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 17. | Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company
  شرکت ایمن صنعت زمان فرا | Address: Shahrak-e-Jafar Abad-e-Jangal Rd, Naseriyeh, Tehran, Iran;
  Number 16, Kolezar alley, Farsian Street, Shahid Rezaiee Street, Azadegan Autobahn, Tehran, Iran;
  Number 16, Gholshan 14, Golestan Boulevard, Negarestan Boulevard, Sham Abad, Tehran, Iran
  Type of entity: private company
  Place of registration: Iran
  Date of registration: 2010
  National ID no: 103201991293 (Iran)
  Business registration no: 369541 (Iran)
  Principal place of business: Iran
  Associated individuals: Mohammad Zandi Aliabadi, chairman of the Board of directors;
  Hossein Zandi Aliabadi, Vice chairman of the Board of directors;
  Fatemeh Haghshenas, CEO
  Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) | Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is an Iranian company manufacturing and importing security equipment for Iranian security forces.
  Its equipment is used by Iranian security forces to violently suppress peaceful protests, including the protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.
  Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 18. | Iranian Special Police Forces
  نیروی ویژه پاد وحشت
  a.k.a. NOPO; Iran’s Counter-Terror Special Forces; Niroo-ye Vizhe Pasdar-e Velayat; Supreme Leader's Guardian Special Forces; Provincial Special Forces; Special Counter-Terrorism Force | Address: Iran
  Type of entity: police force
  Place of registration: Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Associated individuals: Mohsen Ebrahimi (Commander)
  Other associated entities: Iran’s Special Unit Forces, Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) | The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are a subdivision of Iran’s Special Unit Forces and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF). NOPO is a highly trained, specialised unit often called upon to dissolve protests.
  During the 2022 protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, NOPO used excessive violence and lethal force against unarmed protestors, including women and children, e.g. by firing automatic weapons at protestors.
  The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 19. | Radis Vira Tejarat Co
  شرکت رادیس ویرا تجارت | Address: Tehran, Pasdaran St., West Gilan St., No 5, Unit 1, Corner of Mohed Dou Alley
  Type of entity: physical security provider, private enterprise
  Principal place of business: Iran
  Associated individuals: Abbas Azarpendar, CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co and regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (customers), Pars Ertebat Afzar Co (distributor) | Radis Vira Tejarat Co is the Iranian representative of the company Tiandy Technologies. The close ties between the companies are illustrated by the fact that the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, Abbas Azarpendar, is also regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies. Radis Vira Tejarat Co is a key intermediary in Iran providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.
  During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, its equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.
  Radis Vira Tejarat Co is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 20. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada in West Azerbaijan
  شهداء
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: West Azerbaijan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: West Azerbaijan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada operates in the province of West-Azerbaijan.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Habib Shahsavari is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, the IRGC Regional Corps Shohada conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the West Azerbaijan towns of Piranshahr, Mahabad and Bukan. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Mahabad and Bukan have killed at least four and 12 people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 21. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram in Kermanshah
  حضرت نبی اکرم
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Kermanshah, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Kermanshah, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram operates in the province of Kermanshah.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Bahman Reyhani is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 22. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds in Gilan
  قدس
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Gilan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Gilan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds operates in the province of Gilan.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Abdollahpour is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, Gilan province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 23. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala in Mazandaran
  کربلای
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Mazandaran, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Mazandaran, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala operates in the province of Mazandaran.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Siavash Moslemi is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters in Mazandaran province. In those operations, it used disproportionate force and violence against protesters.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 24. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada in Tehran province
  الشهداء سید
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Tehran, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada operates in the province of Tehran.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Zulqadr is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, the violent repression of protests in Tehran province by Iranian security forces, including by the IRGC, has been particularly strong and excessive.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 25. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Karbala
  کربلا
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Southwest Iran (provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad)
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala operates in Southwest Iran, covering the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the provinces of Khusestan and Lorestan, including in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. During those operations, IRGC troops used disproportionate force, using live ammunition against protesters.
  The IRGC Operational Base Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 26. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds
  قدس
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds is the IRGC’s regional headquarters in the southeast of Iran and oversees Kerman province and Sistan and Baluchestan province.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of this entity.
  Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued.
  The IRGC Operational Base Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 27. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf
  الاشرف نجف
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Najaf-e-Ashraf oversees the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.
  The IRGC Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 28. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr in Khuzestan
  عصر ولی
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Khuzestan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Khuzestan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr operates in the province of Khuzestan.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour is the commander of this entity.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is responsible for massacres of protesters in Khuzestan in November 2020. In addition, in the course of the 2022 protests in Iran, it has conducted operations against protesters in particular in the town of Izeh. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations, leading to the killing of protesters.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 29. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl in Lorestan
  حضرت ابوالفضل
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Lorestan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Lorestan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl operates in the province of Lorestan.
  During the 2022 protests, it conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, operations were conducted in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 30. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas in Kurdistan
  المقدس بيت
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Kurdistan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Kurdistan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas operates in the province of Kurdistan.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Sadegh Hosseini is the commander of this entity.
  During the 2022 protests, this entity conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the Kurdistan towns and West Azerbaijan towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez have killed at least seven, two and two people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 31. | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman in Sistan and Baluchestan
  سلمان
  سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی | Address: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran
  Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit
  Place of registration: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran
  Principal place of activity: Iran
  Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman oversees the province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
  EU-listed Brigadier General Amanollah Garshasbi is the commander of this entity.
  Sistan and Baluchestan has seen some of the most violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against protesters has continued.
  The IRGC Regional Corps Salaman is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023’ |

Name

Identifying information

Reasons

Date of listing

‘13.

Ravin Academy

آکادمی راوین

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Date of registration: 2019

Registration number: 49135

Principal place of business: Second Floor, No 36, Naqdi Street, North Sohrevardi Street, Shahid Ghandi-Niloufar Neighbourhood, Tehran, Iran

Ravin Academy is an Iran-based cyber security company which provides cyber security education and training in both defensive and offensive fields as well as hacker training.

In addition, Ravin Academy operates on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and supports them in recruiting hackers.

Hackers trained at the Ravin Academy have been involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime, thereby repressing the protests.

Therefore, Ravin Academy is responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

14.

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company

شرکت سامان گستر سحاب پرداز با مسئولیت محدود

a.k.a. Sahab Pardaz

سحاب پرداز

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Principal place of business:

Tehran, No 22, Khorramshahr Street

Tehran, North Shohvardi Street, Korramshahr Street, Number 24, Floor 1

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is an Iran-based company providing social-media filtering services.

It is engaged in censorship and surveillance activities for the Government of Iran, including during the 2022 protests, that prohibit, limit or penalise the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran, or that limit access to print or broadcast media.

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

15.

Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA)

ارتباطات و مقررات تنظیم سازمان رادیویی

a.k.a. Communication Regulation Authority (CRA)

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Associated entity: Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) is under the authority of the Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The CRA enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter internet content through a spyware called SIAM.

During the 2022 protests, the CRA used its control of internet access and mobile phones to track protestors and create a detailed picture of dissidents’ and protesters’ activities for the authorities to use at their will. The CRA is therefore responsible for supporting the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.

The CRA is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

16.

Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil

ستاد امر به معروف و نهی از منکر

a.k.a. Office for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil; Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; Setad-PV

ستاد پو

Type of entity: government institution

Place of registration: Iran

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi, head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil

Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution, responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.

In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).

The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

17.

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company

شرکت ایمن صنعت زمان فرا

Address: Shahrak-e-Jafar Abad-e-Jangal Rd, Naseriyeh, Tehran, Iran;

Number 16, Kolezar alley, Farsian Street, Shahid Rezaiee Street, Azadegan Autobahn, Tehran, Iran;

Number 16, Gholshan 14, Golestan Boulevard, Negarestan Boulevard, Sham Abad, Tehran, Iran

Type of entity: private company

Place of registration: Iran

Date of registration: 2010

National ID no: 103201991293 (Iran)

Business registration no: 369541 (Iran)

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: Mohammad Zandi Aliabadi, chairman of the Board of directors;

Hossein Zandi Aliabadi, Vice chairman of the Board of directors;

Fatemeh Haghshenas, CEO

Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is an Iranian company manufacturing and importing security equipment for Iranian security forces.

Its equipment is used by Iranian security forces to violently suppress peaceful protests, including the protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

18.

Iranian Special Police Forces

نیروی ویژه پاد وحشت

a.k.a. NOPO; Iran’s Counter-Terror Special Forces; Niroo-ye Vizhe Pasdar-e Velayat; Supreme Leader's Guardian Special Forces; Provincial Special Forces; Special Counter-Terrorism Force

Address: Iran

Type of entity: police force

Place of registration: Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Associated individuals: Mohsen Ebrahimi (Commander)

Other associated entities: Iran’s Special Unit Forces, Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are a subdivision of Iran’s Special Unit Forces and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF). NOPO is a highly trained, specialised unit often called upon to dissolve protests.

During the 2022 protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, NOPO used excessive violence and lethal force against unarmed protestors, including women and children, e.g. by firing automatic weapons at protestors.

The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

19.

Radis Vira Tejarat Co

شرکت رادیس ویرا تجارت

Address: Tehran, Pasdaran St., West Gilan St., No 5, Unit 1, Corner of Mohed Dou Alley

Type of entity: physical security provider, private enterprise

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: Abbas Azarpendar, CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co and regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (customers), Pars Ertebat Afzar Co (distributor)

Radis Vira Tejarat Co is the Iranian representative of the company Tiandy Technologies. The close ties between the companies are illustrated by the fact that the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, Abbas Azarpendar, is also regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies. Radis Vira Tejarat Co is a key intermediary in Iran providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.

During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, its equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Radis Vira Tejarat Co is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

20.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada in West Azerbaijan

شهداء

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: West Azerbaijan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: West Azerbaijan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada operates in the province of West-Azerbaijan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Habib Shahsavari is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the IRGC Regional Corps Shohada conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the West Azerbaijan towns of Piranshahr, Mahabad and Bukan. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Mahabad and Bukan have killed at least four and 12 people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.

The IRGC Regional Corps Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

21.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram in Kermanshah

حضرت نبی اکرم

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Kermanshah, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Kermanshah, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram operates in the province of Kermanshah.

EU-listed Brigadier General Bahman Reyhani is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

22.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds in Gilan

قدس

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Gilan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Gilan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds operates in the province of Gilan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Abdollahpour is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Gilan province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Regional Corps Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

23.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala in Mazandaran

کربلای

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Mazandaran, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Mazandaran, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala operates in the province of Mazandaran.

EU-listed Brigadier General Siavash Moslemi is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters in Mazandaran province. In those operations, it used disproportionate force and violence against protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

24.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada in Tehran province

الشهداء سید

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Tehran, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada operates in the province of Tehran.

EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Zulqadr is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the violent repression of protests in Tehran province by Iranian security forces, including by the IRGC, has been particularly strong and excessive.

The IRGC Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

25.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Karbala

کربلا

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Southwest Iran (provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad)

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala operates in Southwest Iran, covering the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the provinces of Khusestan and Lorestan, including in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. During those operations, IRGC troops used disproportionate force, using live ammunition against protesters.

The IRGC Operational Base Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

26.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds

قدس

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds is the IRGC’s regional headquarters in the southeast of Iran and oversees Kerman province and Sistan and Baluchestan province.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of this entity.

Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued.

The IRGC Operational Base Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

27.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf

الاشرف نجف

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Najaf-e-Ashraf oversees the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

28.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr in Khuzestan

عصر ولی

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Khuzestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Khuzestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr operates in the province of Khuzestan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour is the commander of this entity.

The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is responsible for massacres of protesters in Khuzestan in November 2020. In addition, in the course of the 2022 protests in Iran, it has conducted operations against protesters in particular in the town of Izeh. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations, leading to the killing of protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

29.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl in Lorestan

حضرت ابوالفضل

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Lorestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Lorestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl operates in the province of Lorestan.

During the 2022 protests, it conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, operations were conducted in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

30.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas in Kurdistan

المقدس بيت

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Kurdistan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Kurdistan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas operates in the province of Kurdistan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Sadegh Hosseini is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, this entity conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the Kurdistan towns and West Azerbaijan towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez have killed at least seven, two and two people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.

The IRGC Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

31.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman in Sistan and Baluchestan

سلمان

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman oversees the province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Amanollah Garshasbi is the commander of this entity.

Sistan and Baluchestan has seen some of the most violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against protesters has continued.

The IRGC Regional Corps Salaman is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023’

---

DECISIONS

| 23.1.2023 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | LI 20/23 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |

23.1.2023

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

LI 20/23

---

COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING DECISION (CFSP) 2023/153

of 23 January 2023

implementing Decision 2011/235/CFSP concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities in view of the situation in Iran

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Article 31(2) thereof,

Having regard to Council Decision 2011/235/CFSP of 12 April 2011 concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities in view of the situation in Iran (1), and in particular Article 3(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,

Whereas:

| (1) | On 12 April 2011, the Council adopted Decision 2011/235/CFSP. |
| --- | --- |

(1)

On 12 April 2011, the Council adopted Decision 2011/235/CFSP.

| (2) | On 25 September 2022, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a declaration on behalf of the Union deploring the widespread and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian security forces against non-violent protestors, noting that it had resulted in the loss of lives as well as a large number of injuries. The declaration also spelled out that those responsible for the killing of Mahsa Amini must be held accountable, and called on the Iranian authorities to ensure transparent and credible investigations to clarify the number of deaths and arrests, to release all non-violent protestors and to provide due process to all detainees. Furthermore, the declaration stressed that Iran’s decision to severely restrict internet access and block instant messaging platforms blatantly violates freedom of expression. Finally, the declaration stated that the Union will consider all the options at its disposal to address the killing of Mahsa Amini and the way Iranian security forces have responded to the ensuing demonstrations. |
| --- | --- |

(2)

On 25 September 2022, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a declaration on behalf of the Union deploring the widespread and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian security forces against non-violent protestors, noting that it had resulted in the loss of lives as well as a large number of injuries. The declaration also spelled out that those responsible for the killing of Mahsa Amini must be held accountable, and called on the Iranian authorities to ensure transparent and credible investigations to clarify the number of deaths and arrests, to release all non-violent protestors and to provide due process to all detainees. Furthermore, the declaration stressed that Iran’s decision to severely restrict internet access and block instant messaging platforms blatantly violates freedom of expression. Finally, the declaration stated that the Union will consider all the options at its disposal to address the killing of Mahsa Amini and the way Iranian security forces have responded to the ensuing demonstrations.

| (3) | In this context, and in line with the Union’s commitment to address all issues of concern with Iran, including the human rights situation, 18 persons and 19 entities should be included in the list of persons and entities subject to restrictive measures set out in the Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP. |
| --- | --- |

(3)

In this context, and in line with the Union’s commitment to address all issues of concern with Iran, including the human rights situation, 18 persons and 19 entities should be included in the list of persons and entities subject to restrictive measures set out in the Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP.

| (4) | Decision 2011/235/CFSP should therefore be amended accordingly, |
| --- | --- |

(4)

Decision 2011/235/CFSP should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP is amended in accordance with the Annex to this Decision.

Article 2

This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Done at Brussels, 23 January 2023.

For the Council

The President

J. BORRELL FONTELLES

---

(1)  
  OJ L 100, 14.4.2011, p. 51.

1

---

ANNEX

The following persons and entities are added to the list of persons and entities set out in the Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP:

Persons

| | Name | Identifying information | Reasons | Date of listing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ‘156. | SAJJADI Seyed Hamid Hazaveh
  هزاوه حمید سید سجادی | DOB: 21.3.1969
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth | Hamid Sajjadi is Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth.
  He is responsible for pressuring Iran’s athletes into silence and for preventing them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran. He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber who competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in Seoul in the autumn of 2022. After her competition, Rekabi was tricked into entering the Iranian embassy building in Seoul, where her passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the orders of the authorities in Tehran. Upon her likely forced arrival in Tehran, she was interrogated by two of Iran’s political and sports institutions and met with Sajjadi. In this meeting, she was coerced into making a statement apologising for competing without a hijab and was threatened with the confiscation of family land. In December 2022, it became clear that Elnaz Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan had been demolished.
  Hamid Sajjadi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 157. | GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi
  گلپایگانی سید محمد صالح هاشمی | DOB: 1967
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: Head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice)
  Associated entities: Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), Morality Police | Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani has been the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (also known as the Office or Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) since 25 August 2021. The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution which is responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.
  In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).
  As the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil, Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 158. | ASGARI Hassan
  حسن عسگری
  a.k.a. ASKARI Hassan
  حسن عسکری | POB: Bijar, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: governor of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province
  Associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Hassan Asgari is the governor of the city of Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province and a former Commander of the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces.
  As governor of Sanandaj, he is responsible for the violent and brutal response in that city to the protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022. When a 16-year-old protester was reportedly killed by security forces in Sanandaj, Asgari and other officials stated that she died of a drug overdose, potentially by suicide. Providing false alternative causes of death for protesters killed by security forces is a common tactic used by Iranian officials to evade accountability for their human rights abuses.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 159. | KHIABANI Hossein Modarres
  مدرس حسین خیابانی | DOB: March 1968/1969
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: former governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province | Hossein Modarres Khiabani was the governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province from September 2021 to December 2022 and was responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.
  During his time as governor, the LEF and other security forces cracked down on various protests and used excessive violence against protesters. There is wide evidence of the use of disproportionate force that led to the killing of at least 66 people in the city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province on 30 September 2022.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 160. | KOUSHA Esmaeil Zarei
  کوشا اسماعیل زارعی
  a.k.a. KOSHA Ismail
  کشا یسمیل | DOB: 1978
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: governor of Kurdistan province | Esmaeil Zarei Kousha is the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province and responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.
  As such, he is responsible for the brutal response and excessive use of violence by the LEF and security forces to the protests held in Kurdistan following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 161. | KOWSARI Mohammad Esmail
  اسماعیل محمد کوثری | DOB: 3.5.1955
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mohammad Esmail Kowsari has been a member of the Iranian Parliament (“MP”) since 2020. He is a hard-line lawmaker and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member. Before becoming an MP, Kowsari was the commander of the IRGC’s Sarallah headquarters in Tehran from 2017 to 2020.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has repeatedly threatened security forces with consequences if they do not fulfil their duty and crack down on protests. He has also called for more military action against peaceful protests. As an MP, he has urged the Iranian judiciary to sentence protestors to death.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 162. | MIRSALIM Mostafa
  میرسلیم مستفا
  a.k.a. MIR-SALIM Mostafa; MIRSALIM Sayyid Mostafa Agha
  میر-سالم مستفا
  میرسلیم سید مستفا آقا | DOB: 9.6.1947
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Passport no: Q5956077 (Iran)
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mostafa Mirsalim is a member of the Iranian Parliament.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He has called for protestors to be executed in a matter of days after their arrest. He also frequently attacks the free press and is in favour of restricting social media.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 163. | NAGHDALI Mohammad Taghi
  تقی محمد نقدعلی | DOB: 6.6.1972
  POB: Khomeinishahr- Isfahan, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament | Mohammad Taghi Naghdali is a member of the Iranian Parliament and member of the Parliament’s legal commission.
  During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He also frequently attacks the free press and is involved in drafting laws to restrict the free flow of information.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 164. | GHAZANFARABADI Mousa
  موسا غضنفرآبادی | DOB: 1966
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: member of the Iranian Parliament; head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission | Mousa Ghazanfarabadi is a member of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission. As such, he is responsible for the judicial and legal review of the proposed ministerial plans in Parliament, the review and approval of plans related to criminal law as well as investigating the performance of the country's officials and managers from a judicial and legal point of view.
  He has not condemned the serious human rights violations of Iranian officials during the 2022/2023 protests. On the contrary, he has personally stated that women who violate hijab rules should be deprived of social rights and has argued for the use of force when dealing with them. He is also whitewashing the crimes committed by Iranian forces by defending the government’s version of events surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 165. | NOROOZI Ahmad
  نوروزی احمد
  a.k.a. NOROUZI Ahmad; NEWROUZI Ahmad; NAWROUZI Ahmad | DOB: 1988
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service; CEO of Press TV
  Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB); Press TV | Ahmad Noroozi is the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service and the CEO of Press TV, the main pro-government English language channel that oversees IRIB’s foreign-language outlets.
  IRIB is the Iranian state-run media corporation and has broadcast hundreds of forced confessions by Iranian, dual-national and international detainees in Iran. IRIB and its subsidiaries act as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people. IRIB has produced and recently broadcast interviews of individuals being forced to confess that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests but died due to accidental, unrelated causes.
  Press TV is responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to the Kurdish and Arab minorities, violating internationally recognised rights to a fair trial and due process.
  In his capacity as head of IRIB and as CEO of Press TV, Ahmad Noroozi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 166. | POURANVARI Youssef
  یوسف پورانواری
  a.k.a. POURANVARI Youssuf | DOB: 26.5.1983
  POB: Tehran, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  National ID no: 0492699836 (Iran)
  Function: director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel
  Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) | Youssef Pouranvari is the director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel.
  As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally. Furthermore, IRIB regularly broadcasts false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and uses falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual-nationals and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programmes have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonise human rights activists, and legitimise repression against religious minority groups such as the Baha’i community.
  In his capacity as director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the IRIB foreign-language flagship channel, Youssef Pouranvari contributes to the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 167. | KADEM Ahmad
  کادم احمد | Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) regional headquarters Karbala | Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
  During the 2022 protests, IRGC troops under his command conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the Khusestan and Lorestan regions, including in the towns of Khorramabad (Lorestan) and Izeh (Khusestan). IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters. As overall commander of the IRGC troops in these regions, Kadem is responsible for violence against protesters conducted by those troops.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 168. | AZIMI Mohammad Nazar
  نظر محمد عظیمی,
  a.k.a. AZIMI Mohammadnazar
  عظیمی موهاممادنازار | Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Function: commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf | Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.
  During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, he is responsible for the IRGC violence against protestors in Kermanshah province.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 169. | NILFRUSHAN Abbas Mortaza
  نیلفروشان عباس مرتاضا
  a.k.a. NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFRUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas Mortaza
  نیلفروشان دردشتی عباس | DOB: 23.8.1966
  POB: Isfahan, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Passport no: P46631463 (Iran)
  Function: deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) | Abbas Nilfrushan is the deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and responsible for the IRGC Operations Command, one of the security organisations directly in charge of protest suppression.
  In this capacity, he has framed the 2022 civil grassroots protest movement as a terrorist movement and a direct security threat to Iran, thereby legitimising the harsh response to the peaceful protests.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 170. | MOEIN Moslem
  مسلم معین | DOB: 22.9.1985
  POB: Eslamabad, Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  National ID no: 3341588477 (Iran)
  Address: Part 7, Block 25, Ground Floor, 16th Street, Sarvestan Street, Chaghamirza Phase 2 Shahid Mehrabi, Kermanshah, Iran
  Function: head of the Basji Resistance Force (Basij) Cyberspace Headquarters | Moslem Moein is a senior official in the EU-listed Basij Resistance Force (Basij), the infamous volunteer paramilitary organisation operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with branches throughout Iran.
  The Basij has played a key role in the regime’s deadly crackdown on the protests that have swept the country since September 2022. As chief of the Basij Cyberspace Headquarters, Moein oversees efforts to control and censor Iranians’ online activities. He has spoken publicly about the Basij’s priority of monitoring Iranians’ use of the internet. Additionally, Moein has advocated for the development of Iran’s national intranet, which could allow the regime to disconnect Iran from the global internet. The Iranian government continues to filter and block the free flow of information in Iran.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 171. | KARAMI Mohammad
  محمد کرمی | DOB: 27.1.1966
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Rank: Brigadier General
  Passport no: K50849392 (Iran), expires 23.9.2024
  Function: Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds for Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province | Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds, which commands IRGC troops in Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province.
  Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, Karami is responsible for the IRGC’s violence against protestors in Sistan and Baluchestan province, in particular around “bloody Friday”.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 172. | JAVIDAN Ali Akbar
  جاویدان علی اکبر | DOB: 21.3.1967
  POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province | Ali Akbar Javidan has been the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province since June 2019.
  In this capacity, he is responsible for ordering the violent reaction of the LEF to the 2022 protests in Kermanshah. He is also responsible for ensuring the LEF’s strict implementation of morality policies that severely violate human rights, including through the active repression of women who do not comply with headscarf codes. He is also responsible for the LEF’s arrests of women during the July 2022 protests. He is responsible for violence, discrimination, cruel and degrading behaviour, and arbitrary detention of women.
  He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 173. | AZARPENDAR Abbas
  آذرپندار عباس | POB: Iran
  Nationality: Iranian
  Gender: male
  Function: CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co; regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies | Abbas Azarpendar is the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, which is a key intermediary in Iran, providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.
  During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, Radis Vira Tejarat Co’s equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.
  Azarpendar is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023’ |

Name

Identifying information

Reasons

Date of listing

‘156.

SAJJADI Seyed Hamid Hazaveh

هزاوه حمید سید سجادی

DOB: 21.3.1969

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth

Hamid Sajjadi is Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth.

He is responsible for pressuring Iran’s athletes into silence and for preventing them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran. He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber who competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in Seoul in the autumn of 2022. After her competition, Rekabi was tricked into entering the Iranian embassy building in Seoul, where her passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the orders of the authorities in Tehran. Upon her likely forced arrival in Tehran, she was interrogated by two of Iran’s political and sports institutions and met with Sajjadi. In this meeting, she was coerced into making a statement apologising for competing without a hijab and was threatened with the confiscation of family land. In December 2022, it became clear that Elnaz Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan had been demolished.

Hamid Sajjadi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

157.

GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi

گلپایگانی سید محمد صالح هاشمی

DOB: 1967

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: Head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice)

Associated entities: Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice), Morality Police

Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani has been the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil (also known as the Office or Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) since 25 August 2021. The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution which is responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.

In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).

As the head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil, Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

158.

ASGARI Hassan

حسن عسگری

a.k.a. ASKARI Hassan

حسن عسکری

POB: Bijar, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: governor of Sanandaj, Kurdistan province

Associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Hassan Asgari is the governor of the city of Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province and a former Commander of the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces.

As governor of Sanandaj, he is responsible for the violent and brutal response in that city to the protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022. When a 16-year-old protester was reportedly killed by security forces in Sanandaj, Asgari and other officials stated that she died of a drug overdose, potentially by suicide. Providing false alternative causes of death for protesters killed by security forces is a common tactic used by Iranian officials to evade accountability for their human rights abuses.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

159.

KHIABANI Hossein Modarres

مدرس حسین خیابانی

DOB: March 1968/1969

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: former governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province

Hossein Modarres Khiabani was the governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province from September 2021 to December 2022 and was responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.

During his time as governor, the LEF and other security forces cracked down on various protests and used excessive violence against protesters. There is wide evidence of the use of disproportionate force that led to the killing of at least 66 people in the city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province on 30 September 2022.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

160.

KOUSHA Esmaeil Zarei

کوشا اسماعیل زارعی

a.k.a. KOSHA Ismail

کشا یسمیل

DOB: 1978

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: governor of Kurdistan province

Esmaeil Zarei Kousha is the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province and responsible for overseeing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in the province.

As such, he is responsible for the brutal response and excessive use of violence by the LEF and security forces to the protests held in Kurdistan following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

161.

KOWSARI Mohammad Esmail

اسماعیل محمد کوثری

DOB: 3.5.1955

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mohammad Esmail Kowsari has been a member of the Iranian Parliament (“MP”) since 2020. He is a hard-line lawmaker and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member. Before becoming an MP, Kowsari was the commander of the IRGC’s Sarallah headquarters in Tehran from 2017 to 2020.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has repeatedly threatened security forces with consequences if they do not fulfil their duty and crack down on protests. He has also called for more military action against peaceful protests. As an MP, he has urged the Iranian judiciary to sentence protestors to death.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

162.

MIRSALIM Mostafa

میرسلیم مستفا

a.k.a. MIR-SALIM Mostafa; MIRSALIM Sayyid Mostafa Agha

میر-سالم مستفا

میرسلیم سید مستفا آقا

DOB: 9.6.1947

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Passport no: Q5956077 (Iran)

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mostafa Mirsalim is a member of the Iranian Parliament.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He has called for protestors to be executed in a matter of days after their arrest. He also frequently attacks the free press and is in favour of restricting social media.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

163.

NAGHDALI Mohammad Taghi

تقی محمد نقدعلی

DOB: 6.6.1972

POB: Khomeinishahr- Isfahan, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament

Mohammad Taghi Naghdali is a member of the Iranian Parliament and member of the Parliament’s legal commission.

During the 2022/2023 protests, he has been particularly vocal in his support for the death penalty for arrested protesters, using the parliament as a platform to vehemently promote and call for their executions. He also frequently attacks the free press and is involved in drafting laws to restrict the free flow of information.

He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

164.

GHAZANFARABADI Mousa

موسا غضنفرآبادی

DOB: 1966

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: member of the Iranian Parliament; head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission

Mousa Ghazanfarabadi is a member of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the Parliament’s legal and judicial commission. As such, he is responsible for the judicial and legal review of the proposed ministerial plans in Parliament, the review and approval of plans related to criminal law as well as investigating the performance of the country's officials and managers from a judicial and legal point of view.

He has not condemned the serious human rights violations of Iranian officials during the 2022/2023 protests. On the contrary, he has personally stated that women who violate hijab rules should be deprived of social rights and has argued for the use of force when dealing with them. He is also whitewashing the crimes committed by Iranian forces by defending the government’s version of events surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini.

He is therefore responsible for serious human right violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

165.

NOROOZI Ahmad

نوروزی احمد

a.k.a. NOROUZI Ahmad; NEWROUZI Ahmad; NAWROUZI Ahmad

DOB: 1988

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service; CEO of Press TV

Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB); Press TV

Ahmad Noroozi is the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) World Service and the CEO of Press TV, the main pro-government English language channel that oversees IRIB’s foreign-language outlets.

IRIB is the Iranian state-run media corporation and has broadcast hundreds of forced confessions by Iranian, dual-national and international detainees in Iran. IRIB and its subsidiaries act as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people. IRIB has produced and recently broadcast interviews of individuals being forced to confess that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests but died due to accidental, unrelated causes.

Press TV is responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to the Kurdish and Arab minorities, violating internationally recognised rights to a fair trial and due process.

In his capacity as head of IRIB and as CEO of Press TV, Ahmad Noroozi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

166.

POURANVARI Youssef

یوسف پورانواری

a.k.a. POURANVARI Youssuf

DOB: 26.5.1983

POB: Tehran, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

National ID no: 0492699836 (Iran)

Function: director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel

Associated entities: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

Youssef Pouranvari is the director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel.

As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally. Furthermore, IRIB regularly broadcasts false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and uses falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual-nationals and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programmes have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonise human rights activists, and legitimise repression against religious minority groups such as the Baha’i community.

In his capacity as director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the IRIB foreign-language flagship channel, Youssef Pouranvari contributes to the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

167.

KADEM Ahmad

کادم احمد

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) regional headquarters Karbala

Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

During the 2022 protests, IRGC troops under his command conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the Khusestan and Lorestan regions, including in the towns of Khorramabad (Lorestan) and Izeh (Khusestan). IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters. As overall commander of the IRGC troops in these regions, Kadem is responsible for violence against protesters conducted by those troops.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

168.

AZIMI Mohammad Nazar

نظر محمد عظیمی,

a.k.a. AZIMI Mohammadnazar

عظیمی موهاممادنازار

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Function: commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf

Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Najaf Al-Ashraf, which commands IRGC troops in the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, he is responsible for the IRGC violence against protestors in Kermanshah province.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

169.

NILFRUSHAN Abbas Mortaza

نیلفروشان عباس مرتاضا

a.k.a. NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas; NILFOROUSHAN Abbas; NILFRUSHAN DARDASHTI Abbas Mortaza

نیلفروشان دردشتی عباس

DOB: 23.8.1966

POB: Isfahan, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Passport no: P46631463 (Iran)

Function: deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Abbas Nilfrushan is the deputy commander for operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and responsible for the IRGC Operations Command, one of the security organisations directly in charge of protest suppression.

In this capacity, he has framed the 2022 civil grassroots protest movement as a terrorist movement and a direct security threat to Iran, thereby legitimising the harsh response to the peaceful protests.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

170.

MOEIN Moslem

مسلم معین

DOB: 22.9.1985

POB: Eslamabad, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

National ID no: 3341588477 (Iran)

Address: Part 7, Block 25, Ground Floor, 16th Street, Sarvestan Street, Chaghamirza Phase 2 Shahid Mehrabi, Kermanshah, Iran

Function: head of the Basji Resistance Force (Basij) Cyberspace Headquarters

Moslem Moein is a senior official in the EU-listed Basij Resistance Force (Basij), the infamous volunteer paramilitary organisation operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with branches throughout Iran.

The Basij has played a key role in the regime’s deadly crackdown on the protests that have swept the country since September 2022. As chief of the Basij Cyberspace Headquarters, Moein oversees efforts to control and censor Iranians’ online activities. He has spoken publicly about the Basij’s priority of monitoring Iranians’ use of the internet. Additionally, Moein has advocated for the development of Iran’s national intranet, which could allow the regime to disconnect Iran from the global internet. The Iranian government continues to filter and block the free flow of information in Iran.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

171.

KARAMI Mohammad

محمد کرمی

DOB: 27.1.1966

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Rank: Brigadier General

Passport no: K50849392 (Iran), expires 23.9.2024

Function: Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds for Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province

Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) headquarters Quds, which commands IRGC troops in Sistan and Baluchestan province and Kerman province.

Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued. As commander of the regional IRGC headquarters for the IRGC troops engaged in this region, Karami is responsible for the IRGC’s violence against protestors in Sistan and Baluchestan province, in particular around “bloody Friday”.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

172.

JAVIDAN Ali Akbar

جاویدان علی اکبر

DOB: 21.3.1967

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province

Ali Akbar Javidan has been the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) in Kermanshah province since June 2019.

In this capacity, he is responsible for ordering the violent reaction of the LEF to the 2022 protests in Kermanshah. He is also responsible for ensuring the LEF’s strict implementation of morality policies that severely violate human rights, including through the active repression of women who do not comply with headscarf codes. He is also responsible for the LEF’s arrests of women during the July 2022 protests. He is responsible for violence, discrimination, cruel and degrading behaviour, and arbitrary detention of women.

He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

173.

AZARPENDAR Abbas

آذرپندار عباس

POB: Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Gender: male

Function: CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co; regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies

Abbas Azarpendar is the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, which is a key intermediary in Iran, providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.

During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, Radis Vira Tejarat Co’s equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Azarpendar is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023’

Entities

| | Name | Identifying information | Reasons | Date of listing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ‘13. | Ravin Academy
  آکادمی راوین | Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Date of registration: 2019
  Registration number: 49135
  Principal place of business: Second Floor, No. 36, Naqdi Street, North Sohrevardi Street, Shahid Ghandi-Niloufar Neighborhood, Tehran, Iran | Ravin Academy is an Iran-based cyber security company which provides cyber security education and training in both defensive and offensive fields as well as hacker training.
  In addition, Ravin Academy operates on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and supports them in recruiting hackers.
  Hackers trained at the Ravin Academy have been involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime, thereby repressing the protests.
  Therefore, Ravin Academy is responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. | 23.1.2023 |
| 14. | Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company
  شرکت سامان گستر سحاب پرداز با مسئولیت محدود
  a.k.a Sahab Pardaz
  سحاب پرداز | Place of registration: Tehran, Iran
  Principal place of business:





  Tehran, No. 22, Khorramshahr Street |
| Tehran, North Shohvardi Street, Korramshahr Street, Number 24, Floor 1 |

Name

Identifying information

Reasons

Date of listing

‘13.

Ravin Academy

آکادمی راوین

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Date of registration: 2019

Registration number: 49135

Principal place of business: Second Floor, No. 36, Naqdi Street, North Sohrevardi Street, Shahid Ghandi-Niloufar Neighborhood, Tehran, Iran

Ravin Academy is an Iran-based cyber security company which provides cyber security education and training in both defensive and offensive fields as well as hacker training.

In addition, Ravin Academy operates on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and supports them in recruiting hackers.

Hackers trained at the Ravin Academy have been involved in directly disrupting the communication of those protesting against the Iranian regime, thereby repressing the protests.

Therefore, Ravin Academy is responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

14.

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company

شرکت سامان گستر سحاب پرداز با مسئولیت محدود

a.k.a Sahab Pardaz

سحاب پرداز

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Principal place of business:

Tehran, No. 22, Khorramshahr Street

Tehran, North Shohvardi Street, Korramshahr Street, Number 24, Floor 1

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is an Iran-based company providing social-media filtering services.

It is engaged in censorship and surveillance activities for the Government of Iran, including during the 2022 protests, that prohibit, limit or penalise the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran, or that limit access to print or broadcast media.

Samane Gostar Sahab Pardaz Private Limited Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

15.

Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA)

ارتباطات و مقررات تنظیم سازمان رادیویی

a.k.a. Communication Regulation Authority (CRA)

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Associated entity: Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) is under the authority of the Iranian Ministry for Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The CRA enforces the Iranian government’s requirements to filter internet content through a spyware called SIAM.

During the 2022 protests, the CRA used its control of internet access and mobile phones to track protestors and create a detailed picture of dissidents’ and protesters’ activities for the authorities to use at their will. The CRA is therefore responsible for supporting the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights.

The CRA is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

16.

Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil

ستاد امر به معروف و نهی از منکر

a.k.a. Office for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil; Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; Setad-PV

ستاد پو

Type of entity: government institution

Place of registration: Iran

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: GOLPAYEGANI Seyyed Mohammed Saleh Hashemi, head of the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil

Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is a government institution, responsible for determining and enforcing excessively strict behavioural models in society.

In 2022, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil was instrumental in setting new and stricter morality codes for women that are in clear violation of their human rights. Additionally, the Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil plays a central role in setting up the monitoring and often brutal sanctioning of women and men who do not respect these codes. These strict codes are subsequently brutally enforced by the EU-listed Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (and specifically its Morality Police).

The Headquarters for Enjoining Right and Forbidding Evil is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

17.

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company

شرکت ایمن صنعت زمان فرا

| Address: Shahrak-e-Jafar Abad-e-Jangal Rd, Naseriyeh, Tehran, Iran; |
| --- |
| Number 16, Kolezar alley, Farsian Street, Shahid Rezaiee Street, Azadegan Autobahn, Tehran, Iran; |
| Number 16, Gholshan 14, Golestan Boulevard, Negarestan Boulevard, Sham Abad, Tehran, Iran |

Address: Shahrak-e-Jafar Abad-e-Jangal Rd, Naseriyeh, Tehran, Iran;

Number 16, Kolezar alley, Farsian Street, Shahid Rezaiee Street, Azadegan Autobahn, Tehran, Iran;

Number 16, Gholshan 14, Golestan Boulevard, Negarestan Boulevard, Sham Abad, Tehran, Iran

Type of entity: private company

Place of registration: Iran

Date of registration: 2010

National ID no: 103201991293 (Iran)

Business registration no: 369541 (Iran)

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: Mohammad Zandi Aliabadi, chairman of the Board of directors;

Hossein Zandi Aliabadi, Vice chairman of the Board of directors;

Fatemeh Haghshenas, CEO

Other associated entities: Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is an Iranian company manufacturing and importing security equipment for Iranian security forces.

Its equipment is used by Iranian security forces to violently suppress peaceful protests, including the protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Imen Sanat Zaman Fara Company is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

18.

Iranian Special Police Forces

نیروی ویژه پاد وحشت

a.k.a. NOPO; Iran’s Counter-Terror Special Forces; Niroo-ye Vizhe Pasdar-e Velayat; Supreme Leader's Guardian Special Forces; Provincial Special Forces; Special Counter-Terrorism Force

Address: Iran

Type of entity: police force

Place of registration: Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Associated individuals: Mohsen Ebrahimi (Commander)

Other associated entities: Iran’s Special Unit Forces, Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF)

The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are a subdivision of Iran’s Special Unit Forces and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF). NOPO is a highly trained, specialised unit often called upon to dissolve protests.

During the 2022 protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, NOPO used excessive violence and lethal force against unarmed protestors, including women and children, e.g. by firing automatic weapons at protestors.

The Iranian Special Police Forces (NOPO) are therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

19.

Radis Vira Tejarat Co

شرکت رادیس ویرا تجارت

Address: Tehran, Pasdaran St., West Gilan St., No. 5, Unit 1, Corner of Mohed Dou Alley

Type of entity: physical security provider, private enterprise

Principal place of business: Iran

Associated individuals: Abbas Azarpendar, CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co and regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF) (customers), Pars Ertebat Afzar Co (distributor)

Radis Vira Tejarat Co is the Iranian representative of the company Tiandy Technologies. The close ties between the companies are illustrated by the fact that the CEO of Radis Vira Tejarat Co, Abbas Azarpendar, is also regional manager in Iran for Tiandy Technologies. Radis Vira Tejarat Co is a key intermediary in Iran providing some of the most advanced surveillance equipment to the Iranian government.

During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September 2022, its equipment has been used by the Iranian security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Basij and the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (LEF), to brutally suppress the nationwide protests, leading to the torture or death of at least 516 protestors, including at least 70 children.

Radis Vira Tejarat Co is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

20.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada in West Azerbaijan

شهداء

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: West Azerbaijan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: West Azerbaijan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Shohada operates in the province of West-Azerbaijan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Habib Shahsavari is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the IRGC Regional Corps Shohada conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the West Azerbaijan towns of Piranshahr, Mahabad and Bukan. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Mahabad and Bukan have killed at least four and 12 people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.

The IRGC Regional Corps Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

21.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram in Kermanshah

حضرت نبی اکرم

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Kermanshah, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Kermanshah, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram operates in the province of Kermanshah.

EU-listed Brigadier General Bahman Reyhani is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Nabi Akram is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

22.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds in Gilan

قدس

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Gilan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Gilan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Quds operates in the province of Gilan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Abdollahpour is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Gilan province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Regional Corps Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

23.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala in Mazandaran

کربلای

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Mazandaran, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Mazandaran, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Karbala operates in the province of Mazandaran.

EU-listed Brigadier General Siavash Moslemi is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters in Mazandaran province. In those operations, it used disproportionate force and violence against protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

24.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada in Tehran province

الشهداء سید

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Tehran, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Tehran, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada operates in the province of Tehran.

EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Zulqadr is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the violent repression of protests in Tehran province by Iranian security forces, including by the IRGC, has been particularly strong and excessive.

The IRGC Regional Corps Seyyed al-Shohada is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

25.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Karbala

کربلا

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Southwest Iran (provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad)

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Karbala operates in Southwest Iran, covering the provinces of Khusestan, Lorestan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

EU-listed Brigadier General Ahmad Kadem is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, the entity conducted operations against protesters, in particular in the provinces of Khusestan and Lorestan, including in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. During those operations, IRGC troops used disproportionate force, using live ammunition against protesters.

The IRGC Operational Base Karbala is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

26.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds

قدس

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Quds is the IRGC’s regional headquarters in the southeast of Iran and oversees Kerman province and Sistan and Baluchestan province.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Karami is the commander of this entity.

Sistan and Baluchestan province has seen some of the most violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against participants in later protests has continued.

The IRGC Operational Base Quds is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

27.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf

الاشرف نجف

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Operational Base (regional headquarters) Najaf-e-Ashraf oversees the provinces of Kermanshah, Hamedan and Ilam.

EU-listed Brigadier General Mohammad Nazar Azimi is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, Kermanshah province has seen violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC.

The IRGC Operational Base Najaf-e-Ashraf is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

28.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr in Khuzestan

عصر ولی

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Khuzestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Khuzestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Valiasr operates in the province of Khuzestan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour is the commander of this entity.

The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is responsible for massacres of protesters in Khuzestan in November 2020. In addition, in the course of the 2022 protests in Iran, it has conducted operations against protesters in particular in the town of Izeh. IRGC troops have used disproportionate force in these operations, leading to the killing of protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Valiasr is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

29.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl in Lorestan

حضرت ابوالفضل

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Lorestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Lorestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl operates in the province of Lorestan.

During the 2022 protests, it conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, operations were conducted in the town of Khorramabad in Lorestan. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations, using live ammunition against protesters.

The IRGC Regional Corps Hazrat Abufazl is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

30.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas in Kurdistan

المقدس بيت

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Kurdistan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Kurdistan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas operates in the province of Kurdistan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Sadegh Hosseini is the commander of this entity.

During the 2022 protests, this entity conducted operations against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. In particular, commencing 15 November 2022, such operations were conducted against protesters in the Kurdistan towns and West Azerbaijan towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez. IRGC troops used disproportionate force in these operations. IRGC operations in the towns of Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Saqqez have killed at least seven, two and two people, respectively, since 15 November 2022.

The IRGC Regional Corps Beit-al-Moqadas is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023

31.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman in Sistan and Baluchestan

سلمان

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی

Address: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran

Type of entity: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military unit

Place of registration: Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran

Principal place of activity: Iran

Other associated entities: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Regional Corps Salaman oversees the province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

EU-listed Brigadier General Amanollah Garshasbi is the commander of this entity.

Sistan and Baluchestan has seen some of the most violent crackdown by Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, during the 2022 protests. On 30 September 2022, the provincial capital Zahedan witnessed “bloody Friday”, when security forces opened fire on a protest forming in Zahedan around Friday prayer, using live ammunition. At least 70 protestors were shot and killed. Since then, violence against protesters has continued.

The IRGC Regional Corps Salaman is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.

23.1.2023’

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