MPs call for sanctions against 19 Iranians

OTTAWA— The Iran government’s rights violations, torture and execution of its critics make a Saudi hit squad’s brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi look “modest,” says former justice minister Irwin Cotler.

Cotler, now head of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, was joined Monday by a multiparty group of MPs to release a report that “names and shames” 19 individual Iranian officials responsible for the worst abuses.

Cotler and the MPs called on the Trudeau government to sanction “the major architects of repression” under Canada’s Magnitsky Act, also known as the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.

“One of the problems that we’ve had is that the international community did not speak up during the period of violations respecting human rights defenders, journalists and the like in Saudi Arabia,” Cotler said. “That took us down the road to Khashoggi.” The Saudi expat and Washington Post columnist was killed and his body dismembered in October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi’s slaying has been linked to the inner circle of the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, though the Saudi regime denies the prince approved the plot.

Cotler went on: “I want to say that the Iranian officials whose violations are documented in this report make Khashoggi’s murder — as brutal and atrocious as it was — make it modest by comparison given the pervasive and persistent assault on human rights” ongoing in Iran.

Use of the Magnitsky Act against major Iranian government ministers, prosecutors, judges, police and prison leaders would slap them with a travel ban and freeze any Canadian assets they might hold. Even if in practical terms it might have little effect, Cotler argued their public blacklisting is an important move to show solidarity with the Iranian people, and to apply pressure on the regime.

Cotler said the individuals named in the Wallenberg centre’s report are responsible for the “massive assault on human rights in Iran” that escalated throughout 2018 and targeted journalists, environmentalists, dual citizens, cultural leaders, religious minorities, women’s rights activists, labour rights activists, students, teachers and lawyers.

Among those was Shaparak Shajarizadeh, who appeared on the podium to urge the government to “stand in solidarity with human rights defenders.” She said she was arrested three times and beaten during one detention for posting videos in support of a campaign against the compulsory hijab.