WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Wednesday accused two Iranian officials of being involved in what it called "serious human rights abuses" and blocked access to any assets the two might have in American financial institutions.
The State and Treasury departments said they are taking action against the prosecutor general in Tehran, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, and the commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, Mohammed Reza Naqdi, over abuses that occurred over the disputed Iranian presidential election in 2009.
The decision means that the two men will be denied access to any bank accounts or other property they might have in U.S. financial institutions and that those institutions will be prohibited from dealing with them.
Treasury, in a statement, said that Dolatabadi was appointed Tehran's prosecutor general in August 2009 and since that time his office has indicted a large number of protesters. They include individuals who took part in the December 2009 Ashura Day protests, which saw large-scale clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
Treasury said that Dolatabadi's office had charged protesters with Muharebeh, or enmity against God, which carries a death sentence. The department said that the prosecutor's office had arrested reformists, human rights activists and members of the media as part of a broad crackdown on the political opposition.
Naqdi, as commander of Iran's paramilitary force, was responsible for or complicit in the violent response to the December 2009 protests, Treasury said. That action resulted in up to 15 deaths and the arrests of hundreds of protesters, the department said.
Michael Posner, assistant secretary of state for human rights, said Wednesday's action against the two government officials "underscores our enduring commitment to support Iranians seeking to exercise their universal rights and expresses our solidarity with victims of torture, persecution and arbitrary detention."
On Tuesday, the United States condemned violence in Libya, where security forces unleashed a bloody crackdown on protesters demanding the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the violence that was occurring in Libya was "completely unacceptable" and called on the government of Libya to take actions to end it.