The United Kingdom has issued penalties against 30 people around the world, including Russian and Iranian officials, for acts of torture, sexual abuse, and violent repression of street demonstrations.
The move comes on Friday, a day after France imposed new European Union sanctions against Iran for human rights violations in its security crackdown on popular protests in the country, as well as its delivery of drones to Russia before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The British government stated that its sanctions were planned in collaboration with international partners to align with International Anti-Corruption Day and Global Human Rights Day.
They encompassed individuals involved in activities including the torture of prisoners and the mobilisation of troops to rape civilians.
“Today our sanctions go further to expose those behind the heinous violations of our most fundamental rights,” foreign secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
A Russian colonel
Russian Colonel Ramil Rakhmatulovich Ibatullin was sanctioned for his position as commander of the 90th Tank Division, which has been involved in fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
The government stated that other complaints have been made against serving members of the division, including the conviction of a senior lieutenant in Ukraine on sexual abuse charges during the conflict.
Russia has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians while conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to eradicate threats to its security.
Britain also sanctioned 10 Iranian officials connected to Iran’s prison systems. This included six people linked to the Revolutionary Courts that have been responsible for prosecuting protesters with sentences including the death penalty.
Nationwide protests that erupted after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 have posed one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic republic since its establishment in 1979.
The British government sanctioned Ali Cheharmahali and Gholamreza Ziyayi, the former directors of Tehran’s Evin prison, which it claimed was notorious for tormenting both Iranian and international inmates.
Eleven countries
The foreign office said the sanctions against 11 countries across seven sanctions regimes were the most that Britain has ever imposed in one package.
Others on the list, accused of violating human rights, were from Nicaragua, Pakistan and Uganda.
The UK also highlighted orchestrated sexual violence in sanctioning two local officials in South Sudan, one armed group in Mali and three military entities in Myanmar.
Designated individuals from Kosovo, Moldova and Serbia were accused of corruption.
