Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has decreed on Saturday the appointment of Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Radan, under US sanctions for human rights abuses, as the new head of the National Police amid the wave of protests that began in September against the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini and which, according to NGOs, have resulted in 470 deaths.
Radan, according to the decree reported by the official Iranian news agency IRNA, takes over the post since his predecessor, Hosein Ashtari, «has completed his mission» after eight years in office.
The ayatollah asks Radan, former chief of police of the former province of Khorasan, as well as of Sistan and Baluchistan, and finally of the capital, Tehran, to «take measures to safeguard security and provide public tranquility».
According to a profile subsequently published by the DPA agency, the new police chief is known for his radical attitudes. In particular, he has always advocated that women strictly adhere to the Islamic dress code. Radan also believes that young people should not follow Western hairstyle trends and should be arrested for infringement.
Finally, it should be noted that Radan has been on a U.S. sanctions list for 12 years for committing human rights violations in the wake of the wave of violence following the 2009 presidential election.
As deputy chief of the National Police, Radan was responsible for «beatings, killings and arbitrary arrests and detentions of protesters» committed by the police following the controversial re-election of the then ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to the US Treasury Department in its sanctions notice published in 2010.
The U.S. also points to him as an active participant in the abuse of detainees at the Kahrizak penitentiary center, where hundreds of anti-presidential demonstrators were imprisoned.
Also on Saturday, Iranian authorities announced the execution of two more demonstrators who participated in the protests against the death of the young woman, arrested for allegedly wearing the Islamic veil incorrectly.
The executed, identified as Mohamed Mehdi Karami and Mohamed Hosseini, were convicted for the death of a security guard during one of the protests in November, the Iranian judicial agency Mizan announced.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
