Four American senators have called on U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to impose sanctions against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a human rights abuser.
“We urge you to designate President Ahmadinejad as an Iranian human rights abuser," Republican Senators Mark Kirk and Jon Kyl, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman wrote in a letter to Clinton.
They point out that on March 2 at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Clinton said there was “certainly evidence” of human rights abuses by Iran’s leadership including Ahmadinejad.
The U.S. senators also refer to the EU’s recent move designating 32 Iranian official as human rights abusers, noting that the U.S. has made the same designation against only seven officials on that list.
They urge Clinton to investigate the remaining 25 officials on the EU list for possible inclusion as human rights abusers.
The EU list includs the head of Iran’s National Police, commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, and senior judiciary officials, as well as judges that managed the cases of protesters detained following the 2009 presidential elections.
