US slaps sanctions on Iran judges

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on the Iranian judge who sentenced a recently freed American and vowed more punishment over the suppression of protests. US officials said that Abdolghassem Salavati, a Revolutionary Court judge in Tehran, has sentenced more than 100 people to jail or death for political reasons and pointed to his role in the imprisonment of Xiyue Wang. The Princeton scholar researching Iranian history was arrested in 2016 on espionage charges but freed earlier this month in a swap for an Iranian jailed in the United States. “We´re glad we won Xiyue´s release but he should never have been sentenced or jailed in the first place,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a forum on human rights dominated by Iranian exiles.