EU targets top Iran body, 8 officials over rights abuses

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran’s Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution and 8 officials, including judges, lawmakers and clerics accused of links to the security crackdown on protesters.

The protests began after the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the Islamic Republic’s morality police, and have grown into one of the most serious challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

At least 529 people have been killed in demonstrations, according to human rights activists in Iran. Over 19,700 others have been detained by authorities amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent. Some people linked to the protests have been executed.

The EU said it had imposed asset freezes and travel bans on the 8 officials and frozen the assets of The Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution due to their involvement “in serious human rights violations in Iran.”

The EU said the council is “a regime policy body” that “promoted several projects undermining the freedom of girls and women, setting limits on their clothing and education. Its decisions have also discriminated against minorities.”

It’s the sixth round of sanctions that the 27-nation bloc has imposed on Iranian officials and organizations — including other ministers, military officers and Iran’s morality police — for alleged rights abuses.