US imposes sanctions on Iranian vice squad, accusing unit of abusing women amid protests

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in the custody of the vice squad three days after her arrest for not covering her hair with the headscarf Islamic, compulsory for Iranian women

The death of Mahsa Amini sparked protests in Iran (

Image: AFP via Getty Images

The United States imposed sanctions after citing Iranian vice police as responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini.

Ms Amini, 22, died after being arrested by the Islamic Republic's morality police for wearing 'inappropriate attire' - sparking a wave of protests, with at least a dozen people believed to have died killed as deadly civil unrest continues across the republic.

Protests have been most intense in the Kurdish region, where authorities have previously suppressed unrest among the Kurdish minority which numbers between eight and ten million people.

The vice squad arrested Ms. Amini - a Kurdish woman - last week, saying she did not properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab, which is compulsory for Iranian women.

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Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the Iranian vice squad last week (

Picture:

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Ms Amini collapsed in a police station and died three days later. Police say she died of a heart attack and deny abuse.

"Mahsa Amini was a brave woman whose death in moral custody was yet another act of brutality by the Iranian regime's security forces against her own people," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement Thursday. press release.

The US Treasury Department also accused vice police of violating the rights of peaceful protesters and said it had imposed sanctions on seven senior Iranian military and security officials, including the head of Iran's ground forces. the Iranian army.