The European Union (EU) is set to impose sanctions on police and other state entities in Iran over human rights abuses linked to the November 2019 protests, Reuters reported Wednesday.
The travel bans and asset freezes will target 8 militia and police commanders and 3 state entities next week.
Targeted individuals include members of the Basij, an armed force that operates under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The sanctions will take effect sometime after the Easter holidays in Europe, diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday.
In November 2019, known as Bloody November, Iran witnessed the most violent crackdown on protesters since the Islamic Revolution. Around 1,500 people were reportedly killed in the process.
At the time, people across the country took to the streets to protest a surge in fuel prices, calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government and the country’s supreme leader who, a few days into the unrest, issued an order to crack down on protesters.
The casualties included “at least 14 teenagers and about 400 women,” sources at the Iranian Interior Ministry told Reuters in December the same year. Iran has dismissed the figures as “fake news.”
The upcoming sanctions will be the first of their kind to be imposed by the EU on Iran over human rights issues in nearly a decade.
