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nationwide, with some protests turning into anti-regime demonstrations and banks, buses, petrol stations and police cars set alight. Iranian authorities responded with force, killing a still disputed number of people—Amnesty International concluded that more than 300 lost their lives, and the US Treasury Department claims at least 23 minors were among those killed. Rahmani Fazli was effectively in charge of the security force response along with police commanders. The protests were also significant for prompting the authorities to shut down the internet in an attempt at taking momentum out of the unrest, partly by denying material to anti-regime members of the Iranian diaspora who were seen as fanning the flames. Never before had a country anywhere near as big as Iran—home to 83mn people—entirely switched off the worldwide web.
In a statement, the US Treasury said Rahmani Fazli authorised the police and the paramilitary Basij "to use lethal force" against protestors.
"His—and the regime's—goal was to quash these peaceful protests and suppress the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression at any cost," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a separate statement on May 20.
The US Treasury also blacklisted seven senior officials of Iran’s law enforcement forces including commander Hossein Ashtari Fard, and a provincial commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also accusing them of engaging in human rights violations when the protests were ongoing.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman attempted to ridicule the latest US designations on May 21, suggesting that the fresh sanctions were a sign of just how ineffectual Washington’s previous sanctions imposed on the country were, state television IRIB reported.
"Washington's fruitless and repetitive sanctions against Iranian officials is a sign of weakness, despair and confusion of the US administration," state TV quoted Abbas Mousavi as saying.
In the aftermath of the unrest, Rahmani Fazli​ ​pushed the idea that the protesters were insurgents paid by the West​. ​Stating that the authorities had foiled a big conspiracy, he claimed more than 50 bases used by security forces were attacked and that as many as 70 petrol stations were set on fire. Around 200,000 people took part in the events, he added.
In a​ ​report, entitled “Iran: Deliberate Coverup of a Brutal Crackdown”​, ​New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) quotes human rights groups and an Iranian lawmaker as saying that up to 7,000 were detained during the protests.
2.8​ ​Iran sentences couple to death for money laundering
An anti-corruption special court in Iran has sentenced a couple to death for money laundering and other instances of extensive corruption, the judiciary said on May 19. ​Iran set up anti-corruption courts nearly two years ago amid a public outcry that certain well-connected individuals were milking the system and using their status and power to enrich themselves.
Najva Lasheidaei and her husband Vahid Behzadi were found guilty of
11​ IRAN Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com