TEHRAN – Head of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights, Ali Bagheri-Kani, has announced that 45 people linked to the U.S. sanctions on Iran will be prosecuted.

“We handed the names of 45 natural and legal Americans, who were somehow involved in the cruel and inhumane sanctions against the Iranian nation, to the Tehran prosecutor,” Bagheri-Kani said on Monday, ISNA reported.

“With all legal and judicial tools that we have at our disposal at the domestic and international levels, we’re standing up to such crimes with strong determination,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history against Iran. 

According to the nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran was obliged to put limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions. 

Trump described the JCPOA “the worst deal in history”.

Iranian officials have denounced the U.S. sanctions as “economic terrorism”, with the aim of bringing about the collapse of the Iranian economy. President Hassan Rouhani has also said the U.S. sanctions were aimed at causing economic collapse in Iran but failed to do so.

“We have been under sanctions since 1980 but since 2017 an economic war began. Right now, it is not sanctions but an economic war. The U.S., with all its capacities such as dollar, banking ties, and its relations with multinational companies, has waged an economic war against us,” Rouhani said on September 23.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Bagheri-Kani said Iran is a leading country in treating various diseases despite all restrictions, adding that this does not downplay the inhumane nature of the conduct of Iran’s enemies, particularly the U.S.

He said the Iranian youths are doing their best to prevent any disruption to the country’s health sector.

“As the judicial apparatus, we strive to not let the enemies’ hostile acts go unanswered,” he said, adding, “The Americans have been exerting maximum pressure [on Iran] and the European countries are cooperating with this effort and have even extended the sanctions to include the health sector.”

He explained that many crimes have been committed with regard to the cruel sanctions. The European countries, he added, which have imposed sanctions on the supply of medicine to Iran, are not different from members of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group and other terrorists.

In remarks last month, Bagheri-Kani strongly protested against interferences by the European embassies in Iran’s internal affairs.

“If you [the European embassies] do not know anything about righteousness, justice and fairness, at least respect diplomatic norms and avoid becoming a loudspeaker to spread lies like an opposition group,” he said during a meeting of the Judiciary’s high council on September 14.

His comments came after a number of European embassies and envoys to Iran, including the German ambassador, made comments in reaction to the execution of 27-year-old Navid Afkari who had been convicted of murder.

MH/PA