The sanctions target senior Iranian officials including Iran’s minister for culture and Islamic guidance, his deputy, the mayor of Tehran, and an Iranian police spokesman, Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Today’s sanctions on those responsible for Iran’s oppressive laws send a clear message that the UK and our partners will continue to stand with Iranian women and call out the repression it is inflicting on its own people,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly claimed.

The so-called sanctions were imposed on the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in police custody in the capital Tehran in September last year.

The 22-year-old died in a hospital in Tehran days after she was detained by police on September 15.

Despite clarification on the circumstances surrounding her death, protests erupted in the country, which later turned violent and led to attacks on security officers and acts of vandalism against public property as well as police vehicles and ambulances.

Comprehensive investigations carried out by the Iranian Parliament and Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization ruled out the use of force on the woman, pointing to her medical history and brain surgery years ago.

The foreign-backed violent riots claimed dozens of lives from both security forces and innocent people as the Western media and Persian-language news networks continued to instigate unrest in Iran.

Since sporadic foreign-backed riots took place in Iran last summer, Western countries led by the United States started to tighten sanctions against Iran’s judicial and other authorities in a bid to continue the riots they had provoked and supported after the sudden death of a young Iranian lady, Mahsa Amini, while in Iran’s police custody.

The Islamic Republic of Iran sees the Western countries’ accusations as part of intensified pressures aimed at pressuring it to give in to the West’s excessive demands in the nuclear talks.