U.S. marks grim two-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death with Iran sanctions

Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The United States unleashed sanctions Wednesday targeting those responsible for oppressing protesters after they took to the streets in anger following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was killed in police custody two years ago this week.

The sanctions hit 12 people the Biden administration claimed were involved in ongoing violent repression of Iranian people, both within the country and abroad.

Named for designation are members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp and its Basij paramilitary militia, both of which have been involved in suppressing demonstrations and arresting and detaining protesters.

Others named were senior prison officials accused of subjecting those detained to human rights abuses, including torture and executions.

"Two years have now passed since Mahsa Amini's tragic death in the custody of Iran's so-called Morality Police, and, despite the Iranian people's peaceful calls for reform, Iran's leaders have doubled down on the regime's well-worn tactics of violence and coercion," Bradley Smith , acting under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement .

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was visiting Tehran in the late summer of 2022, was arrested by Iran's Guidance Patrol, also known as the Morality Police, on Sept. 13, accused of violating the nation's draconian hijab laws. She fell into a coma at the Vozara Detention Center, then died Sept. 16.

Credible reports say state police beat her about the head while in their custody. Meanwhile, the regime said she died of a heart attack.

Her death sparked mass women-led protests that were met with a bloody and brutal crackdown by Tehran.

At least 551 protesters, including 68 children and 49 women, were killed by security forces quelling the demonstrations, Iran Human Rights said .

The non-profit said this week that Iran has also executed at least 1,425 people since Amini's death, twice the number killed by the state in the two years prior.

Following Amini's death, democratic nations came out in condemnation of her killing and the crackdown on protests while voicing support for the protesters.

Along with the United States, Australia and Canada coordinated sanctions of their own this week, with those from Ottawa on Wednesday targeting 11 people and two companies it accuses of being involved in the Iran proxy Hamas -led Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and ignited the ongoing 11-month-old war.

Canberra on Monday, the grim two-year anniversary of Amini's death, sanctioned five people under its Iran sanctions regime for being involved in the repression of protests.