Canada has sanctioned a high-profile former Tehran police chief whose look at a Toronto-area gym final 12 months sparked outrage and allegations that Canada is a haven for high-ranking members of Iran’s regime and their family members.
Morteza Talaei is a retired second brigadier basic with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was in cost of Tehran’s police in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was crushed to loss of life in custody.
Kazemi was arrested in 2003 for taking pictures of Tehran’s infamous Evin jail, the place protests have been happening over college students detained by the regime.
Iran’s authorities ultimately admitted she had been crushed however maintains her loss of life was unintentional. The attending doctor, who fled to Canada, mentioned Kazemi confirmed indicators of “very brutal rape,” torture and head trauma earlier than her loss of life.
Now, nearly 20 years after Kazemi’s loss of life, the federal authorities has introduced it’s focusing on Talaei — together with three different Iranians and 5 entities — underneath the Special Economic Measures Act for gross and systemic human rights violations dedicated in Iran.
Under the rules, the federal government can ban folks from coming into Canada and freeze any property they could have in 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 mentioned Friday.

The federal authorities is underneath intense stress from the Iranian-Canadian diaspora and the Conservatives to get powerful on Iran.
The loss of life 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 sporting 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 family members, from coming into Canada. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser mentioned 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 fast household residing in Canada and will have monetary property right here. Many in the Iranian group additionally allege that feminine relations of Iranian officers in Canada usually do not adhere to the strict gown codes the regime itself requires for girls in Iran.
A video and pictures posted on social media in January confirmed Talaei strolling on a treadmill at a gym in Richmond Hill in 2021. Swiss-based Iranian impartial journalist Abdollah Abdi posted the photographs, elevating questions on what Talaei was doing in the nation.
Abdi mentioned Talaei later instructed him he was visiting his daughter however insisted it was a personal matter.
An Iranian journalist inside Iran, Fariborz Kalantari, tweeted that the query is not why Talaei was in Canada however somewhat how his daughter obtained Canadian residency.
The National Post was the primary Canadian media outlet to report on the pictures.
سردار مرتضی طلایی کجاست؟<br><br>بر اساس عکسها و فیلم به دست رسیده مرتضی طلائی، نایب رئیس سابق شورای اسلامی شهر تهران و رئیس پلیس سابق تهران بزرگ که در سال هشتاد و پنج با درجه نظامی سردار سرتیپ دوم پاسدار بازنشسته شده بود اکنون در کاناد اقامت دارد و به زندگی مشغول است. <a href=”https://t.co/6X3WHBtWKD”>pic.twitter.com/6X3WHBtWKD</a>
—@abdolah_abdi
Many on social media known as out the hypocrisy of a high-ranking regime official understanding at a gym the place ladies don’t put on hijabs.
U.S.-based Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad has known as on Canada to learn the way the former “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.
Shocking that Canada gave visa to this torturer. <br>We name on Canada to analyze how former chief of Tehran police and IRGC commander was allowed to enter the nation. <br>He’s understanding subsequent to an unveiled lady however his police flogged ladies for not sporting hijab.<a href=”https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@JustinTrudeau</a> <a href=”https://t.co/4dVSlVP0h5″>pic.twitter.com/4dVSlVP0h5</a>
—@AlinejadMasih
CBC News has searched property data and has not positioned any houses listed underneath Talaei’s title 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 gown code for girls.
Women in Iran accused of not sporting their veils correctly face arrest and jail.
Talaei instructed the state-controlled Fars information 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 mentioned.
The federal authorities additionally introduced sanctions in opposition to Ali Ghanaatkar, who was a senior choose, prosecutor and interrogator at Evin jail.
U.Okay. Labour Party MP Chris Bryant has alleged Ghanaatkar was concerned in mistreating detainees, bringing false expenses 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 items.
Canada sanctions former Tehran police chief spotted in Toronto-area gym in 2021
Canada sanctions former Tehran police chief spotted in Toronto-area gym in 2021
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Canada sanctions former Tehran police chief spotted in Toronto-area gym in 2021