Australia is imposing more sanctions on Iranian officials on the second anniversary of the jailing and death of Mahsa Jina Amini.
The 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman was arrested in September 2022 for “improperly” wearing her hijab.
Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said Monday that Australia stood in solidarity “with Iranian women and girls in their struggle for equality and empowerment.”
Wong announced financial sanctions and travel bans on senior security and law enforcement officials who have allegedly been involved in the “violent repression” of protests in Iran.
She said the human rights situation in Iran was “dire” as female activists continued to be detained and handed death sentences.
Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that abuses by Iranian authorities have continued since the death of Amini two years ago.
“We have sanctioned five Iranian security and law enforcement officials who have been involved in these law enforcement so-called activities, which are ultimately a repression – a violent repression – of the Iranian people,” Wong said.
Nikita White a campaigner with Amnesty International Australia, a rights group, told local media Monday that human rights have rapidly deteriorated in Iran.
“The people who are being executed are being executed after facing horrifically unfair trials,” White said. She said torture and and ill-treatment have been reported.
Australia has now imposed sanctions on almost 200 individuals and organizations with links to Iran, including those associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It was listed by Canada as a terrorist group earlier this year following a similar move by the United States in 2019.
In Canberra on Monday, opposition lawmaker and shadow foreign affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham urged the Australian government to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
Earlier this month, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described sanctions announced by Britain, France and Germany as “economic terrorism.”
Araghchi has rejected U.S. claims that Tehran has sent ballistic missiles to Russia to help in its war with Ukraine.
