Council Decision (CFSP) 2021/595 of 12 April 2021 amending Decision 2011/235/CFSP concerning restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities in view of the situation in Iran
Date: 2021-04-12
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU restrictive measure, Iran, economic sanctions, international sanctions, legal person, natural person




L_2021125EN.01005801.xml










13.4.2021   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


L 125/58








            COUNCIL DECISION (CFSP) 2021/595
of 12 April 2021
         
amending 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 29 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).












(2)


On the basis of a review of Decision 2011/235/CFSP, the Council considers that the restrictive measures set out therein should be renewed until 13 April 2022.












(3)


One person designated in the Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP is deceased, and his entry should be removed from that Annex. The Council has also concluded that the entries concerning 34 persons and one entity included in the Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP should be updated.












(4)


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





HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:



Article 1
Decision 2011/235/CFSP is amended as follows:






(1)


in Article 6, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

‘2.   This Decision shall apply until 13 April 2022. It shall be kept under constant review. It shall be renewed, or amended as appropriate, if the Council deems that its objectives have not been met.’;











(2)


the Annex is amended as set out in 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, 12 April 2021.


For the Council


The President

A. P. ZACARIAS
            





(1)  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 (OJ L 100, 14.4.2011, p. 51).




ANNEX
The Annex to Decision 2011/235/CFSP (‘List of persons and entities referred to in Articles 1 and 2’) is amended as follows:






(1)


entry 16 (concerning HADDAD Hassan (alias Hassan ZAREH DEHNAVI) in the list headed ‘Persons’ is deleted;










(2)


the entries for the following 34 persons and one entity are replaced by the following:
Persons









 


Name


Identifying information


Reasons


Date of listing




‘1.


AHMADI-MOQADDAM Esmail


POB: Tehran (Iran)
DOB: 1961
Gender: male


Former Senior Advisor for Security Affairs to the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff. Chief of Iran’s National Police from 2005 until early 2015. Also Head of the Iranian Cyber Police (listed) from January 2011 until early 2015. Forces under his command led brutal attacks on peaceful protests and a violent night-time attack on the dormitories of Tehran University on 15 June 2009. Former head of Iran’s Headquarters in support of the Yemeni People.


12.4.2011




4.


FAZLI Ali


Gender: male
Title: Brigadier-General


Former Chief of the Imam Hossein Cadet College (2018-June 2020). Former deputy Commander of the Basij (2009-2018), Head of the IRGC’s Seyyed al-Shohada Corps, Tehran Province (until February 2010). The Seyyed al-Shohada Corps is in charge of security in Tehran province and played a key role in the brutal repression of protesters in 2009.


12.4.2011




8.


MOTLAGH Bahram Hosseini


Gender: male


Member of the teaching staff of Imam Hossein University (Guardians of the Revolution). Former Head of the Army Command and General Staff College (DAFOOS). Former Head of the IRGC’s Seyyed al-Shohada Corps, Tehran Province. The Seyyed al-Shohada Corps played a key role in organising the repression of protests in 2009.


12.4.2011




11.


RAJABZADEH Azizollah


Gender: male


Commander of the Urban Order Headquarters since 2014. Former Head of Tehran Disaster Mitigation Organisation (2010-2013). As Head of Tehran Police until January 2010, he was responsible for violent police attacks on protesters and students. As Commander of the Law Enforcement Forces in the Greater Tehran, he was the highest ranking accused in the case of abuses in Kahrizak Detention Centre in December 2009.


12.4.2011




15.


DORRI-NADJAFABADI Ghorban-Ali


POB: Najafabad (Iran)
DOB: 3.12.1950
Gender: male


Member of the Assembly of Experts and representative of the Supreme Leader in Markazi (‘Central’) Province and Head of the Supreme Administrative Court. Prosecutor General of Iran until September 2009, as well as former Intelligence Minister under Khatami presidency. As Prosecutor General of Iran, he ordered and supervised the show trials following the first post-election protests, where the accused were denied their rights and access to an attorney.


12.4.2011




19.


JAFARI-DOLATABADI Abbas


POB: Yazd (Iran)
DOB: 1953
Gender: male


Advisor to the Supreme Disciplinary Court of judges since 29 April 2019. Former Prosecutor General of Tehran (August 2009-April 2019). Dolatabadi’s office indicted a large number of protesters, including individuals who took part in the December 2009 Ashura Day protests. He ordered the closure of Karroubi’s office in September 2009 and the arrest of several reformist politicians, and he banned two reformist political parties in June 2010. His office charged protesters with ‘Muharebeh’, or ‘enmity against God’, which carries the death penalty, and denied due process to those facing the death penalty. His office also targeted and arrested reformists, human rights activists and members of the media, as part of a broad crackdown on the political opposition.
In October 2018 he announced to the media that four detained Iranian environmental activists were to be charged with ‘sowing corruption on earth’, a charge which carries the death penalty.


12.4.2011




21.


MOHSENI-EJEI Gholam-Hossein


POB: Ejiyeh (Iran)
DOB: circa 1956
Gender: male


Member of the Expediency Council. Prosecutor General of Iran from September 2009 until 2014. Formerly Deputy Head and spokesperson of the Judiciary. Former Intelligence Minister during the 2009 elections. While he was Intelligence Minister during the 2009 election, intelligence agents under his command were responsible for detention, torture and extraction of false confessions under pressure from hundreds of activists, journalists, dissidents and reformist politicians. In addition, political figures were coerced into making false confessions under unbearable interrogation, which included torture, abuse, blackmail and the threatening of family members.


12.4.2011




22.


MORTAZAVI Said


POB: Meybod, Yazd (Iran)
DOB: 1967
Gender: male


Head of the Welfare System from 2011 to 2013. Prosecutor General of Tehran until August 2009. As Prosecutor General of Tehran, he issued a blanket order used for the detention of hundreds of activists, journalists and students. In January 2010 a parliamentary investigation held him directly responsible for the detention of three prisoners who subsequently died in custody. He was suspended from office in August 2010 after an investigation by the Iranian judiciary into his role in the deaths of the three men detained on his orders following the election.
In November 2014, his role in the deaths of detainees was officially recognised by the Iranian authorities. He was acquitted by an Iranian Court on 19 August 2015, on charges connected to the torture and deaths of three young men at the Kahrizak detention centre in 2009. Sentenced to prison in 2017 and released in September 2019.


12.4.2011




27.


ZARGAR Ahmad


Gender: male


Judge at the Supreme Court and Chief of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Head of the ‘Organization for the Preservation of Morality’. Former judge at the 2nd Branch of the Special Economic Corruption Court. Former judge, Tehran Appeals Court, Branch 36.
He confirmed long-term jail warrants and death warrants against protesters.


12.4.2011




33.


ABBASZADEH-MESHKINI Mahmoud


Gender: male


Member of Parliament since February 2020. Former Advisor to Iran’s High Council for Human Rights (until 2019). Former secretary of the High Council for Human Rights. Former Governor of Ilam Province. Former Political Director of the Interior Ministry. As Head of the Article 10 Committee of the Law on Activities of Political Parties and Groups, he was in charge of authorising demonstrations and other public events and registering political parties.
In 2010, he suspended the activities of two reformist political parties linked to Mousavi – the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation. From 2009 onwards he has consistently and continuously prohibited all non-governmental gatherings, therefore denying a constitutional right to protest and leading to many arrests of peaceful demonstrators in contravention of the right to freedom of assembly.
In 2009 he also denied the opposition a permit for a ceremony to mourn people killed in protests over the Presidential elections.


10.10.2011




34.


AKBARSHAHI Ali-Reza


Gender: male


Former Director-General of Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters (a.k.a. Anti-Narcotics Headquarters). Former Commander of Tehran Police. Under his leadership, the police force was responsible for the use of extrajudicial force on suspects during arrest and pre-trial detention. The Tehran police were also implicated in raids on Tehran university dorms in June 2009 when, according to an Iranian Majlis commission, more than 100 students were injured by the police and Basiji. Until 2018, head of the railway police.


10.10.2011




36.


AVAEE Seyyed Ali-Reza (a.k.a. AVAEE Seyyed Alireza, AVAIE Alireza)


POB: Dezful (Iran)
DOB: 20.5.1956
Gender: male


Minister of Justice. Former Director of the special investigations office. Until July 2016 Deputy Minister of the Interior and Head of the Public Register. Advisor to the Disciplinary Court for Judges since April 2014. Former President of the Tehran Judiciary. As President of the Tehran Judiciary he has been responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners’ rights and a high number of executions.


10.10.2011




39.


GANJI Mostafa Barzegar


Gender: male


General Director of Inspection Supervision and Performance Evaluation of Courts since June 2020. Former Prosecutor General of Qom (2008-2017) and former Head of the Directorate-General for prisons. He was responsible for the arbitrary detention and maltreatment of dozens of offenders in Qom. He was complicit in a grave violation of the right to due process, contributing to the excessive and increasing use of the death penalty and a sharp increase in executions in 2009/2010.


10.10.2011




40.


HABIBI Mohammad Reza


Gender: male


Chief Justice of Isfahan. Former Attorney General of Isfahan. Former Head of the Ministry of Justice office in Yazd. Former Deputy Prosecutor of Isfahan. Complicit in proceedings denying defendants a fair trial – such as Abdollah Fathi, executed in May 2011 after his right to be heard and mental health issues were ignored by Habibi during his trial in March 2010. He was, therefore, complicit in a grave violation of the right to due process, contributing to a sharp increase in executions in 2011.


10.10.2011




41.


HEJAZI Mohammad


POB: Ispahan (Iran)
DOB: 1956
Gender: male


Deputy Commander of IRGC’s Quds Force since 2020 as a result of the reorganisation of its chain of command following the killing of General Qasem Soleimani. As IRGC-General he has played a key role in intimidating and threatening Iran’s ‘enemies’. Former Head of the IRGC’s Sarollah Corps in Tehran, and former Head of the Basij Forces, he played a central role in the post-election crackdown on protesters in 2009.


10.10.2011




44.


JAZAYERI Massoud


Gender: male
Title: Brigadier-General


Cultural advisor to the Joint Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces since April 2018. Within the joint military staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Brigadier-General Massoud Jazayeri was the Deputy Chief of Staff for cultural and media affairs (a.k.a. State Defence Publicity HQ). He actively collaborated in the repression of 2009 protests as Deputy Chief of Staff. He warned in a Kayhan interview that many protesters inside and outside Iran had been identified and would be dealt with at the right time.
He has openly called for the suppression of foreign mass media outlets and the Iranian opposition. In 2010, he asked the government to pass tougher laws against Iranians who cooperate with foreign media sources.


10.10.2011




45.


JOKAR Mohammad Saleh


POB: Yazd (Iran)
DOB: 1957
Gender: male


Member of Parliament for the Province of Yazd. Former Deputy for Parliamentary Affairs of the Revolutionary Guards. From 2011 to 2016, parliamentary deputy for the Province of Yazd and Member of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy. Former Commander of Student Basij Forces. In this role, he was actively involved in suppressing protests and indoctrinating children and young people with a view to continuing suppression of free speech and dissent. As Member of the Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy, he publically supported the suppression of opposition to the government.


10.10.2011




46.


KAMALIAN Behrouz (a.k.a. Hackers Brain, Behrooz_Ice)


POB: Tehran (Iran)
DOB: 1983
Gender: male


Head of the ‘Ashiyaneh’ cyber group linked with the Iranian regime. The ‘Ashiyaneh’ Digital Security, founded by Behrouz Kamalian, is responsible for intensive cyber attacks both on domestic opponents and reformists and foreign institutions. Kamalian’s ‘Ashiyaneh’ organisation’s work has assisted the regime’s crackdown against the opposition, which has involved numerous serious human rights violations in 2009. Both Kamalian and the ‘Ashiyaneh’ cyber group have continued their activities until at least January 2020.


10.10.2011




47.


KHALILOLLAHI Moussa (a.k.a. KHALILOLLAHI Mousa, ELAHI Mousa Khalil)


POB: Tabriz (Iran)
DOB: 1963
Gender: male


Prosecutor of Tabriz from 2010 to 2019. He was involved in Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s case and is complicit in grave violations of the right to due process.


10.10.2011




48.


MAHSOULI Sadeq (a.k.a. MAHSULI Sadeq)


POB: Oroumieh (Iran)
DOB: 1959/1960
Gender: male


Deputy Secretary-General of the Paydari Front (Front of Islamic Stability). Former Advisor to Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former member of the Expediency Council and former Deputy Chief of the Perseverance Front. Minister of Welfare and Social Security between 2009 and 2011. Minister of the Interior until August 2009. As Minister of the Interior, Mahsouli had authority over all police forces, interior ministry security agents, and plain-clothes agents. The forces under his direction were responsible for attacks on the dormitories of Tehran University on 14 June 2009 and the torture of students in the basement of the Ministry (the notorious basement level 4). Other protestors were severely abused at the Kahrizak Detention Centre, which was operated by police under Mahsouli’s control.


10.10.2011




53.


TALA Hossein (a.k.a. TALA Hosseyn)


POB: Tehran (Iran)
DOB: 1969
Gender: male


Mayor of Eslamshahr. Former Iranian MP. Former Governor-General (‘Farmandar’) of Tehran Province until September 2010, he was responsible for the intervention of police forces and therefore for the repression of demonstrations. He received a prize in December 2010 for his role in the post-election repression.


10.10.2011




54.


TAMADDON Morteza (a.k.a. TAMADON Morteza)


POB: Shahr Kord-Isfahan (Iran)
DOB: 1959
Gender: male


Former Head of Tehran provincial Public Security Council. Former IRGC Governor-General of Tehran Province. In his capacity as Governor and Head of Tehran provincial Public Security Council, he bore overall responsibility for all repressive activities undertaken by the IRGC in Tehran Province, including cracking down on political protests since June 2009. Currently board member at Khajeh Nasireddin Tusi University of Technology.


10.10.2011




60.


HOSSEINI Dr Mohammad (a.k.a. HOSSEYNI Dr Seyyed Mohammad; Seyed, Sayyed and Sayyid)


POB: Rafsanjan, Kerman (Iran)
DOB: 23.7.1961
Gender: male


Advisor to Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and spokesperson for YEKTA, a hardline political faction. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance (2009-2013). Ex-IRGC, he was complicit in the repression of journalists.


10.10.2011




63.


TAGHIPOUR Reza


POB: Maragheh (Iran)
DOB: 1957
Gender: male


Member of the 11th Iranian parliament (Tehran constituency). Member of the Supreme Cyberspace Council. Former Member of the City Council of Teheran. Former Minister for Information and Communications (2009-2012).
As Minister for Information, he was one of the top officials in charge of censorship and control of internet activities and also all types of communications (in particular mobile phones). During interrogations of political detainees, the interrogators make use of the detainees’ personal data, mail and communications. On several occasions following the 2009 presidential election and during street demonstrations, mobile lines and text messaging were blocked, satellite TV channels were jammed and the internet locally suspended or at least slowed down.


23.3.2012




65.


LARIJANI Sadeq


POB: Najaf (Iraq)
DOB: 1960 or August 1961
Gender: male


Named Head of the Expediency Council on 29 December 2018. Former Head of the Judiciary (2009-2019). The Head of the Judiciary is required to consent to and sign off every qisas (retribution), hodoud (crimes against God) and ta’zirat (crimes against the state) punishment. This includes sentences carrying the death penalty, floggings and amputations. In this regard, he has personally signed off numerous death penalty sentences, contravening international standards, including stoning, executions by suspension strangulation, execution of juveniles, and public executions such as those where prisoners have been hanged from bridges in front of crowds of thousands. Therefore, he has contributed to a high number of executions. He has also permitted corporal punishment sentences such as amputations and the dripping of acid into the eyes of the convicted. Since Sadeq Larijani took office, arbitrary arrests of political prisoners, human rights defenders and minorities have increased markedly. Sadeq Larijani also bears responsibility for systemic failures in the Iranian judicial process with respect to the right to a fair trial.


23.3.2012




66.


MIRHEJAZI Ali


Gender: male


Part of the Supreme Leader’s inner circle, one of those responsible for planning the suppression of protests, which has been implemented since 2009, and associated with those responsible for supressing the protests.
He was also responsible for planning the suppression of public unrest in December 2017/2018 and November 2019.


23.3.2012




67.


SAEEDI Ali


Gender: male


Head of the Supreme Leader’s political ideology bureau. Former representative of the Supreme Leader for the Pasdaran (1995-2020) after spending his whole career within the institution of the military, and specifically in the Pasdaran intelligence service. This official role made him the key figure in the transmission of orders emanating from the Office of the Supreme Leader to the Pasdaran’s repression apparatus.


23.3.2012




69.


MORTAZAVI Seyyed Solat


POB: Farsan, Tchar Mahal-o-Bakhtiari (South) – (Iran)
DOB: 1967
Gender: male


Since 16 September 2019, head of the real estate branch of the Mostazafan Foundation, which is directly run by Supreme Leader Khamenei. Until November 2019, Director of the Tehran branch of the Foundation Astan Qods Razavi. Former mayor of the second largest city of Iran, Mashhad, where public executions regularly happen. Former Deputy Interior Minister for Political Affairs, appointed in 2009. In this capacity, he was responsible for directing repression of persons who spoke up in defence of their legitimate rights, including freedom of expression. Later appointed as Head of the Iranian Election Committee for the parliamentarian elections in 2012 and for the presidential elections in 2013.


23.3.2012




73.


FARHADI Ali


Gender: male


Deputy Head of Inspectorate of Legal Affairs and Public Inspection of the Ministry of Justice of Tehran. Former prosecutor of Karaj. Responsible for grave violations of human rights, including prosecuting trials in which the death penalty was handed down. There were a high number of executions in Karaj region during his time as prosecutor.


23.3.2012




79.


RASHIDI AGHDAM Ali Ashraf


Gender: male


Former head of Evin Prison (2012-2015). During his tenure, conditions in the prison deteriorated and reports referenced intensified ill-treatment of prisoners. In October 2012, nine female prisoners went on hunger strike in protest of the violation of their rights and violent treatment by prison guards.


12.3.2013




82.


SARAFRAZ Mohammad (Dr.) (a.k.a. Haj-agha Sarafraz)


POB: Tehran (Iran)
DOB: circa 1963
Place of residence: Tehran
Gender: male


Former member of the Supreme Cyberspace Council. Former President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) (2014-2016). Former Head of IRIB World Service and Press TV, responsible for all programming decisions. Closely associated with the state security apparatus. Under his direction, Press TV, along with IRIB, has worked with the Iranian security services and prosecutors to broadcast forced confessions of detainees, including that of Iranian-Canadian journalist and film-maker Maziar Bahari, in the weekly programme ‘Iran Today’. Independent broadcast regulator OFCOM fined Press TV in the UK GBP 100 000  for broadcasting Bahari’s confession in 2011, which was filmed in prison whilst Bahari was under duress. Sarafraz is therefore associated with violating the right to due process and fair trial.


12.3.2013




84.


EMADI Hamid Reza (a.k.a. Hamidreza Emadi)


POB: Hamedan (Iran)
DOB: circa 1973
Place of residence: Tehran
Place of work: Press TV HQ, Tehran
Gender: male


Press TV Newsroom Director. Former Press TV Senior Producer.
Responsible for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees, including journalists, political activists and persons belonging to Kurdish and Arab minorities, violating internationally recognised rights to a fair trial and due process. Independent broadcast regulator OFCOM fined Press TV in the UK GBP 100 000  for broadcasting the forced confession of Iranian-Canadian journalist and film-maker Maziar Bahari in 2011, which was filmed in prison whilst Bahari was under duress. NGOs have reported further instances of forced televised confessions by Press TV. Emadi is therefore associated with violating the right to due process and fair trial.


12.3.2013




86.


MUSAVI-TABAR Seyyed Reza


POB: Jahrom (Iran)
DOB: 1964
Gender: male


Former head of the Revolutionary Prosecution of Shiraz. Responsible for illegal arrests and ill treatment of political activists, journalists, human rights defenders, Baha’is and prisoners of conscience, who were harassed, tortured, interrogated and denied access to lawyers and due process. Musavi-Tabar signed judicial orders in the notorious No 100 Detention Centre (a male prison), including an order to detain female Baha’i prisoner Raha Sabet for three years in solitary confinement.


12.3.2013




87.


KHORAMABADI Abdolsamad


Gender: male


Deputy Director for Judicial Oversight (since 13 October 2018). Former head of the ‘Commission to Determine the Instances of Criminal Content’, a governmental organisation in charge of online censorship and cyber crime. Under his leadership, the Commission defined ‘cyber crime’ by a number of vague categories that criminalise creation and publication of content deemed inappropriate by the regime. He was responsible for repression and the blocking of numerous opposition sites, electronic newspapers, blogs, sites of human rights NGOs and of Google and Gmail since September 2012. He and the Commission actively contributed to the death in detention of the blogger Sattar Beheshti in November 2012. Thus the Commission he was heading is directly responsible for systemic violations of human rights, in particular by banning and filtering websites to the general public, and occasionally disabling internet access altogether.


12.3.2013’




Entities









 


Name


Identifying information


Reasons


Date of listing




‘1.


Cyber Police


Location: Tehran (Iran)
Website:http://www.cyberpolice.ir


The Iranian Cyber Police, founded in January 2011, is a unit of the Islamic Republic of Iran Police, headed by Vahid Majid. From the time of its inception until early 2015 it was headed by Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam (listed). Ahmadi-Moqaddam underlined that the Cyber Police would take on anti-revolutionary and dissident groups who used internet-based social networks in 2009 to trigger protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In January 2012, the Cyber Police issued new guidelines for internet cafés, requiring users to provide personal information that would be kept by café owners for six months, as well as a record of the websites they visited. The rules also require café owners to install closed-circuit television cameras and maintain the recordings for six months. These new rules may create a logbook that authorities can use to track down activists or whoever is deemed a threat to national security.
In June 2012, Iranian media reported that the Cyber Police would be launching a crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs). On 30 October 2012, the Cyber Police arrested the blogger Sattar Beheshti without a warrant for ‘actions against national security on social networks and Facebook’. Beheshti had criticised the Iranian government in his blog. Beheshti was found dead in his prison cell on 3 November 2012, and is believed to have been tortured to death by the Cyber Police authorities. The Cyber Police is responsible for many arrests of Telegram Group Administrators in connection with the nationwide protests of November 2019.


12.3.2013’