This archive report was first published on 22 November 2019.
On November 22, 2019, the US Treasury imposed punitive sanctions on Iran's communications minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, in response to the Tehran regime's blocking of internet communications during violent protests triggered by a petrol price hike.
According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the sanctions were imposed for restricting internet access, including to popular messaging applications that help tens of millions of Iranians stay connected to each other and the outside world.
"Iran's leaders know that a free and open internet exposes their illegitimacy, so they seek to censor internet access to quell anti-regime protests," Mnuchin said.
The protests erupted across the country on November 15, after the price of petrol was raised by as much as 200 percent, resulting in five confirmed deaths and over 100 demonstrators believed to have been killed by authorities using live ammunition.
Azari Jahromi, a former official of the Ministry of Intelligence, has been involved in advancing internet censorship since becoming minister two years ago and has also been involved in surveillance against opposition activists.
The sanctions would freeze financial assets and property Azari Jahromi has in US jurisdictions and forbid Americans or US businesses, especially banks, from dealing with him.
