To support the ongoing mass protests in Iran, the United States has designated the notorious Fardis Prison, an institution where women endured cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
In a statement released by the State Department on Thursday revealed further that the Department of the Treasury is also sanctioning several Iranian security officials, including Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS).
As the brave people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights, the Iranian regime has responded with violence and cruel repression against its own people”, the United States disclosed.
The statement further stated that Treasury also designating 18 individuals and the entities tied to Iran’s “shadow banking” networks that have laundered proceeds from Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales.
The United States said this action also further implements National Security Presidential Memorandum-2 of 2025 as the United States stands with the Iranian people, who are protesting for their natural rights.
“The regime continues to fund destabilizing and malign activities around the world, rather than investing in the welfare of its people at home. 
“We will continue to deny the regime access to financial networks and the global banking system while it continues to oppress the Iranian people.
“Today’s actions are being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13553, which authorizes sanctions on certain persons with respect to serious human rights abuses by the Government of Iran; E.O. 13876, which authorizes sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran.
“And his affiliates; E.O. 13902, which targets Iran’s financial, petroleum, and petrochemical sectors; the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanction Act”, the statement concluded. 
The protests which began on December 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian authorities has accused the U.S. and Israel of fomenting trouble and called for a nationwide rally on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel,” state media reported.
Hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed, with medical staff describing the chaotic conditions and severe shortages. In one account shared with foreign media, a doctor said scores were killed in a single night, while morgues were filled beyond capacity.Verified videos and credible information from eyewitnesses in Iran reveal mass unlawful killings committed on an unprecedented scale amid an ongoing internet shutdown imposed by the authorities since January 8 to conceal their crimes, Amnesty International said
The organization, in a statement released on Thursday urged UN Member states to recognize that systemic and continuing impunity for the crimes committed by security forces in current, past protests opens in new tab has emboldened Iranian authorities to persist in their criminal conduct.
Amnesty revealed that since December 28, the escalating lethal repression to crush the mostly peaceful uprising has led to the unprecedented loss of life during protest dispersals, with the death toll rising to 2,000 by official admission.“UN member states must take immediate and coordinated action to deter further bloodshed, including by convening special sessions at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council.
To signal an end to the era of impunity and to deter further bloodshed, member states should also consider establishing international justice mechanisms aimed at pursuing criminal investigations and prosecutions of those who committed crimes under international law and gross human rights violations.
Evidence gathered by the organization revealed that security forces positioned on the streets and rooftops, including of residential buildings, mosques and police stations, have repeatedly fired rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, targeting unarmed protesters frequently in their heads and torsos. Medical facilities are overwhelmed with the injured while distraught families have been searching for their missing loved ones among body bags near overflowing morgues and witnessed bodies piled up in pick-up trucks, freight containers or warehouses.
Amnesty International analyzed dozens of videos and photographs pertaining to the protest crackdowns since January 8 from 10 cities in the provinces of Alborz, Gilan, Kermanshah, Razavi Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan and Tehran.
The organization also consulted an independent pathologist regarding photographs and videos showing fatal or severe injuries. Human rights defenders and journalists outside Iran shared with the Amnesty screenshots of text or voice messages from 38 individuals in 16 cities across nine provinces in Iran.
Additionally, the organization spoke to three informed sources in Iran, including a medical worker and two protesters, and 16 informed sources outside Iran including victims’ relatives, human rights defenders, journalists and an eyewitness who left Iran on January 12. The evidence gathered by Amnesty International points to a coordinated nationwide escalation in the security forces’ unlawful use of lethal force against mostly peaceful protesters and bystanders since the evening of January 8, 2026.
According to video analysis and eyewitness accounts, security forces involved in the deadly crackdown include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Basij battalions, and various divisions of Iran’s police force, known by its Persian acronym FARAJA, as well as plain-clothes agents.
Verified audiovisual evidence depicts severeopens in a new tab and, in some cases, fatal injuriesopens in a new tab, includes gunshot wounds to d head, including eyes, as well as individuals lying motionless on streets or being carried awayopens in new tab amid what is believed to be continued sound of gunshots.
It stated further that States must also call on the Security Council to refer the Iran situation to International Criminal Court (ICC) while other footage shows patients bleeding profusely or appearing lifelessopens in a new tab on hospital floors.
