The Government of Iran announced Thursday sanctions against eight Canadians, including the ministers of Public Security and Defense, Marco Mendicino and Anita Anand, respectively, and a newspaper in the North American country for their «support of terrorism».
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that those concerned gave support to the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) and «incited and encouraged the execution of terrorist acts and violence against the people of Iran».
Among those sanctioned are the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner; the Chief of Staff of the Canadian Army, Wayne Donald Eyre; and the Commander of the Canadian Air Force, Eric Kenny.
In addition, the commanders of the Canadian Navy and the Canadian Mounted Police, Angus Topshee and Brenda Lucki, respectively, as well as Judge David Brown, have been sanctioned. The National Post newspaper has also been sanctioned for «supporting sanctions» and «maintaining an anti-Iranian stance».
«Iran stresses that facilitating and supporting terrorist acts and the PMOI terrorist group violates the Government of Canada’s international counter-terrorism obligations and that the application of coercive unilateral measures by the (Canadian) government is a clear violation of the fundamental principles of international norms,» it has stressed.
Therefore, he stressed that Iran «will take all necessary measures to implement these sanctions, including a ban on the issuance of visas, a ban on entry into the country, the blocking of bank accounts in Iran and the seizure of property and assets in territory under Iran’s jurisdiction».
«Obviously, the sanctions do not rule out the possibility of criminal proceedings against these individuals by the competent courts due to their involvement in criminal actions,» the Iranian Foreign Ministry has concluded.
The PMOI is the main organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Parliament in Exile of the Resistance of Iran, founded in France in 1981. The group advocates the overthrow of the current Iranian government and has launched multiple armed attacks against the country in recent decades.
The PMOI actively participated in the 1973 Iranian revolution and carried out various attacks on sah government buildings, bank robberies, assassinations of key officials and kidnappings of foreigners. During that time, the group maintained a Shiite Islamist discourse mixed with an adaptation of revolutionary Marxist ideology.
However, soon after the success of the revolution, the new authorities began to persecute the PMOI, which distanced itself politically from the government. In 1986, Masud Rajavi reached a pact with the then president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, at that time at war with Iran, which ended up distancing the positions.
