June 20-2014
The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a third Iranian government official for involvement in censorship.
In addition to the sanctions imposed for involvement in Iran’s nuclear program, the US Treasury also sanctions Iranian officials for human rights violations, drug trafficking, involvement in Syria repression, censorship, missile work and other categories.
The US has said in writing that the sanctions targeted at the nuclear work will be lifted as part of any agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, but it has clearly exempted the other sanctions.
However, the sanctions for the other categories are targeted only at specified individuals and do not hit the Iranian economy. The sanctions freeze the named individual’s assets in the United States—of which none have been discovered as of last year, according to an annual US Treasury report—and bar American “persons” from doing business with the sanctioned individual.
American “persons” are not just citizens but also green card holders and all those legally resident in the United States, such as refugees, asylees, students and resident workers.
The Iranian added to the censorship sanctions list last week is Morteza Tamaddon, who currently heads the Tehran Province Public Security Council. Previously he was Tehran province governor general, in which capacity he acted against those protesting the 2009 election results.
Treasury said he was personally responsible for the harassment of opposition leaders as well ordering the severing of cellphone communications and threatening protesters in 2012.
The two other officials sanctioned for censorship activities are:
- Ezzatollah Zarghami, the long-time chief of Iranian state radio and television, who was put on the list in February 2013.
• Reza Taghipur, who was sanctioned in November 2012 when he was the minister of telecommunications
