As the Trump administration works towards imposing what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says will ultimately be the “strongest sanctions in history” against Iran, the Treasury Department on Wednesday targeted three Iranian organizations and six individuals for “serious human rights abuses.”
They include a company that developed mobile applications allegedly used by the regime to spy on citizens, including those involved in recent anti-government protests.
Also designated for sanctions are Tehran’s notorious Evin prison; a vigilante militia and three of its leaders; and three senior officials responsible for censorship.
“These designations come in the wake of recent protests by the Iranian people and the regime’s subsequent brutal crackdown,” the department said.
It also linked the move to President Trump’s pledge – when he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal this month – not to allow Tehran’s malign activities go unchecked.
“America stands with the people of Iran, and Treasury is taking action to hold the Iranian regime accountable for ongoing human rights abuses, censorship, and other despicable acts it commits against its own citizens,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The designations entail the blocking and reporting of any property or interests in the U.S.
“U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with such persons,” and any foreign financial institution that knowingly does business with them could themselves face U.S. sanctions.
Spyware
The regime in Tehran has blamed the popular messaging and social media app Telegram, for the spread of anti-government sentiment and protests across the country in recent months. A month ago it banned Telegram, a tool used by millions of Iranians, and has been promoting domestically-made alternatives.
Last February the exiled opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published a report claiming that alternative apps developed and distributed by the company, Hanista, contains embedded spyware that facilitates regime repression.
Hanista is one of the entities now subject to sanctions. The Treasury Department said in a statement Wednesday that the company has embedded content in its Mobogram and MoboPlus apps “that facilitates the monitoring and tracking of Iranian citizens” as well an international users of the apps.
“This monitoring and tracking functionality could assist or enable serious human rights abuses by the government of Iran, including the IRGC and MOIS,” it added, in reference to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its ministry of intelligence and security.
Until recently, Mobogram was available around the world for download from Apple’s App Store. On Wednesday it no longer came up in an App Store search. Apple’s press office did not respond to queries by press time.
‘A massive and expensive censorship apparatus’
According to the NCRI, Hanista is effectively an IRGC “front company.”
In a statement Wednesday the opposition group said that some of the Iranians arrested during protests this year were released after being given the option of moving from Telegram to Mobogram.
“Thousands of people were arrested during the protest period, and some of them were presented with the option to leave the Telegram environment and enter the controlled environment of Mobogram before being released by authorities,” NCRI said.
Among the targets of the new U.S. sanctions is Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace. The Treasury Department said he was responsible for the regime’s blocking of apps like Telegram, and its effort to force citizens to use the state-run alternatives.
A second official responsible for censorship, also targeted by the department, is Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, secretary of an entity called the “Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content.” The department said he oversees “the filtering and blocking of political content during elections.”
Others subjected to new U.S. sanctions are:
–Evin Prison, where the Treasury Department said prisoners, including political prisoners, “are subject to brutal tactics inflicted by prison authorities, including sexual assaults, physical assaults, and electric shock.”
–The pro-regime vigilante group Ansar-e Hizballah, linked to violent crackdowns on student protestors (using knives, tear gas and electric batons) and acid attacks in Isfahan city against “multiple” women deemed to be dressed immodestly. Three of its leaders were also designated.
–Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) director Abdulali Ali-Asgari. The state broadcaster has already been designated since 2013 “for restricting or denying the free flow of information to or from the Iranian people. IRIB was implicated in censoring multiple media outlets and airing forced confessions from political detainees.”
“Iran not only exports terrorism and instability across the world, it routinely violates the rights of its own people,” Mnuchin said. “The Iranian regime diverts national resources that should belong to the people to fund a massive and expensive censorship apparatus and suppress free speech.”
Various Iranian entities referred to in Wednesday’s designations are already subject to U.S. sanctions. They include the IRGC, MOIS, IRIB and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.
