Iran arrests 100 protest leaders in crackdown

Geneva - US Treasury slapped punitive sanctions on Iran's communications minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested about 100 leaders of the protests that erupted last week over gasoline price rises, Gholamhossein Esmaili, spokesman for Iran's judiciary, said on Friday according to the official IRNA news agency.
"Approximately 100 leaders, heads and main figures of the recent unrest were identified and arrested in various parts of the country by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps," Esmaili said.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury slapped punitive sanctions on Iran's communications minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, on Friday after the Tehran regime blocked internet communications amid violent protests triggered by a petrol price hike.
"We are sanctioning Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology for restricting internet access, including to popular messaging applications that help tens of millions of Iranians stay connected to each other and the outside world," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.
"Iran's leaders know that a free and open internet exposes their illegitimacy, so they seek to censor internet access to quell anti-regime protests," Mnuchin said.
The protests erupted across the country on November 15, after the price of petrol was raised by as much as 200 per cent.

• MENA