Brussels, 20 February 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The European Union targeted two Iranian government ministers for human rights violations in new sanctions published in the EU Official Journal, a legal register for EU regulations.

Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili and Yousef Nouri, Iran's education minister, were included among 32 new people targeted with an EU travel ban and asset freeze.

Multiple Iranian lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and prison officers were added for their role in the Tehran regime's crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

A director of a woman's prison known for "torture, sexual assault and extrajudicial killings," where many protestors detained during the demonstrations are held, was listed, according to the EU sanctions.

EU foreign ministers adopted the sanctions, now in legal effect, as demonstrators from the Iranian diaspora protested in Brussels in opposition the regime in Tehran, Belga, the Belgian news agency said.