Shafaq News- Washington
The United States imposed sanctions on four individuals andnine entities linked to Iran, accusing them of helping Iranian businessmanBabak Zanjani evade sanctions through financial services, gold trading, digitalassets, and transportation businesses, the Treasury Department stated onFriday.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said thesanctions cover Zanjani's Iran-based "Dot One" conglomerate,including Dot One Value Creation Group, DotOne Gold Company, DotOne RailCompany, DotOne Barter Company, DotOne Airlines Company, and DotOne Trip. According to the Treasury, the network obscured ownership, laundered revenue,and facilitated covert fund transfers for Iran, including financial support forthe Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The measures also target Istanbul-based Zedpay FinansalSistem Ve Hizmetleri, Dubai-based Zedx DMCC and BZ Diamond FZCO, along withtheir executives and associates, whom OFAC accused of providing financial,technological, or material support to Zedcex and Zedxion.
Meanwhile, the European Union imposed sanctions targetingfive judges from Iran's Revolutionary Courts accused of handing down deathsentences, lengthy prison terms, flogging, and other punishments againstpolitical dissidents, human rights activists, and religious minorities,including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. The measures also targetIranian hacker Nima Salehi, founder of the Ashiyane cyber group, which the EUaccused of working with Iran's Cyber Police (FATA) and the IslamicRevolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to conduct cyberattacks against domesticopponents, reformists, and foreign institutions.
Those designations bring the EU's Iran human rightssanctions list to 269 individuals and 53 entities, all subject to asset freezesand travel bans, while the bloc also maintains restrictions on exports ofequipment that could be used for internal repression.
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based IranHuman Rights organization, warned that the collapse of the ceasefire and theresumption of the war could prompt Iranian authorities to intensify executionsof political prisoners. He indicated that hundreds of political prisoners andprotesters currently face charges carrying the death penalty, with around 100already sentenced to death, including 70 inmates held in Dastgerd Prison in thecentral city of Isfahan. The organization urged negotiators to make Iran's “killingmachine” a central issue in any talks with Tehran and said authorities haveexecuted 24 people over protests that erupted in January since the war began,in addition to two others linked to the 2022-2023 protest movement.