Earlier this month,Chandler welcomed reports the British government was preparing to list the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group,writing on Facebook:“The Australian government should follow the lead of our allies and do the same.”
In the latest example of alleged Iranian foreign interference,a Melbourne-based Iranian-Australian named Hamid said the Iranian embassy had called him on three occasions in November and December to ask him about his involvement in protests against the regime.
He said they also requested he pressure his university student niece in Iran not to protest against the regime.
“They were asking me what your role is in the protests … they told me to stay at home,not to protest,” he said.
Another Sydney woman,who did not want her name used for fear of reprisals,said her 78-year-old father in Iran was brought into a government building five days after she was featured in Australian media stories about an anti-regime protest in Sydney.
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“They covered his head with a blindfold for more than two hours,kicked him on his legs and questioned him about me,” she said. “They really scared him.”
The Iranian embassy was contacted for comment.
The Albanese government announced in December it wasapplying so-called Magnitsky sanctions to six Iranian officials,including a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard,for human rights abuses. It also sanctioned Revolutionary Guard officials involved in the transfer of drones from Iran to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.
But human rights groups say the sanctions,which allow the government to revoke visas,ban travel and seize property from individuals who might try to hide assets in Australia,were too limited.
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“We hope to see recommendations for harsher and broader targeted sanctions[and] a listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation,” Steele-John said.
It is unclear whether the Labor members of the committee will join this recommendation given it would pre-empt any decision by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus,who has responsibility for proscribing terrorist organisations.
The United States has designated the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group and the European Union is considering adding it to its terror list.
However,Professor Ben Saul,the Challis chair of international law at the University of Sydney,told the inquiry it was not possible under Australian law to list the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation.
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Unlike in other countries,Australian courts had interpreted the law to mean that state entities could not be classed as terrorist organisations.
He said calls to label the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group were “primarily symbolic”,adding:“I don’t think it particularly adds anything substantively useful in terms of the legal arsenal here in Australia.”
Saul distinguished the Revolutionary Guard from Hezbollah,a political party rather than a state entity that dominates Lebanon’s security and political institutions and waslisted by Australia as a terrorist organisation in 2021.
A spokesman for Dreyfus said it was the government’s longstanding practice not to comment on whether an organisation was being or had been considered for listing under any sanctions framework or the Criminal Code.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as a number of IRGC-linked individuals and entities have been subject to Australian financial sanctions since 2012,” he said.
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