Canada sanctions former Tehran police chief spotted in Toronto-area gym in 2021 | 24CA News

Canada has sanctioned a high-profile former Tehran police chief whose look at a Toronto-area fitness center final 12 months sparked outrage and allegations that Canada is a haven for high-ranking members of Iran’s regime and their kinfolk.

Morteza Talaei is a retired second brigadier common with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was in control of Tehran’s police in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was crushed to demise in custody.

Kazemi was arrested in 2003 for taking pictures of Tehran’s infamous Evin jail, the place protests have been going down over college students detained by the regime.

Iran’s authorities finally admitted she had been crushed however maintains her demise was unintended. The attending doctor, who fled to Canada, stated Kazemi confirmed indicators of “very brutal rape,” torture and head trauma earlier than her demise.

Now, virtually 20 years after Kazemi’s demise, the federal authorities has introduced it’s concentrating on Talaei — together with three different Iranians and 5 entities — below the Special Economic Measures Act for gross and systemic human rights violations dedicated in Iran.

Under the laws, the federal government can ban folks from coming into Canada and freeze any property they might have within the nation.

“We’re looking and continuing to look at all ways to ensure that the Iranian regime knows its continued reprehensible behaviour is absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated Friday.

The federal authorities is below intense stress from the Iranian-Canadian diaspora and the Conservatives to get powerful on Iran.

The demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September triggered large protests throughout Iran and around the globe, together with in Canada. Iran’s morality police arrested Amini for carrying her necessary hijab “improperly.”

On Nov. 14, the federal authorities listed Iran as a regime that engages in terrorism and systemic human rights violations and banned regime members, together with their kinfolk, from coming into Canada. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser stated the ban could lead on the federal government to revoke a relative’s everlasting resident standing in the event that they’re already in Canada. 

Some Iranian-Canadians declare that regime officers have instant household dwelling in Canada and will have monetary property right here. Many within the Iranian group additionally allege that feminine members of the family of Iranian officers in Canada typically do not adhere to the strict costume codes the regime itself requires for ladies in Iran.

A video and pictures posted on social media in January confirmed Talaei strolling on a treadmill at a fitness center in Richmond Hill in 2021. Swiss-based Iranian impartial journalist Abdollah Abdi posted the photographs, elevating questions on what Talaei was doing within the nation.

Abdi stated Talaei later instructed him he was visiting his daughter however insisted it was a non-public matter. 

An Iranian journalist inside Iran, Fariborz Kalantari, tweeted that the query is not why Talaei was in Canada however fairly how his daughter obtained Canadian residency.

The National Post was the primary Canadian media outlet to report on the pictures.

Many on social media known as out the hypocrisy of a high-ranking regime official figuring out at a fitness center the place girls don’t put on hijabs.

U.S.-based Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad has known as on Canada to learn how the previous “chief of Tehran police and IRGC commander was allowed to enter the country.”

“He’s working out next to an unveiled woman but his police flogged women for not wearing hijab,” she tweeted in January to her 600,000-plus followers.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada didn’t reply CBC’s questions on how Talaei entered Canada beforehand and whether or not any household he may need right here can be affected by the sanctions in opposition to him.

“Due to privacy legislation,” the division stated, “we cannot comment on individual cases.” 

IRCC stated broadly that spouses, companions or dependent youngsters of these sanctioned for being a member of a terrorist group can be inadmissible to Canada. But it added that “if a person is already in Canada and becomes inadmissible due to an inadmissible family member, they could apply for a temporary resident permit or for permanent residence under humanitarian and compassionate considerations.”

24CA News has searched property information and has not positioned any houses listed below Talaei’s identify in Ontario.

The National Post reported on Talaei’s controversial historical past in Iran, together with his function in creating a brand new police unit in Tehran in 2006 to implement the nation’s costume code for ladies.

Women in Iran accused of not carrying their veils correctly face arrest and jail.

Talaei instructed the state-controlled Fars news company in 2006 the unit would “confront women showing their bare legs in short pants.”

“We are also going to combat women wearing skimpy head scarves, short and form-fitting coats, and the ones walking pets in parks and streets,” he stated.

The federal authorities additionally introduced sanctions in opposition to Ali Ghanaatkar, who was a senior decide, prosecutor and interrogator at Evin jail.

U.Ok. Labour Party MP Chris Bryant has alleged Ghanaatkar was concerned in mistreating detainees, bringing false prices in opposition to them and forcefully interrogating them.

The federal authorities additionally introduced sanctions on Iran’s Javan News Agency, the Baharestan Kish Company, Safiran Airport Services and Hassan Karami, the commander of the Islamic Republic’s Law Enforcement Forces particular models.