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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8586 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8586

To impose sanctions on the judges, prosecutors and investigators of the 
            Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Courts.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 31, 2024

 Mrs. Kim of California (for herself, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Lawler, and Mr. 
    Trone) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on the 
 Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Financial Services, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To impose sanctions on the judges, prosecutors and investigators of the 
            Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Courts.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Targeting Oppressive Officers to 
Mitigate Abuse in the Iranian Judiciary Act''or the ``TOOMAJ Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Torture is deeply contrary to both the laws and ethical 
        values of the United States, as well as to international norms. 
        This universal denouncement of torture finds its reflection in 
        several domains: through the U.S. criminal code, specifically 
        18 U.S.C. Sec. Sec.  2340-2340A; in International treaties, 
        highlighted by the United Nations Convention Against Torture 
        (CAT); within customary International law; across centuries of 
        the Anglo-American legal tradition; and in the longstanding 
        policies of the United States.
            (2) Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
        guarantees the right to life, liberty, and security of person. 
        Article 9 of such Declaration prohibits arbitrary arrests or 
        detentions and Article 18 of such Declaration guarantees the 
        right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
            (3) As a member state of the United Nations and other 
        international institutions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is 
        bound by international commitments concerning human rights and 
        the rule of law. Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic of Iran has 
        systematically and consistently curtailed the ability of 
        Iranian citizens to exercise fundamental freedoms without fear 
        of retribution.
            (4) The judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
        consists of a Chief Justice, who is responsible for overseeing 
        court administration, and several classes of courts, including 
        Islamic Revolutionary Courts, which are tasked with trying 
        prisoners accused of subverting the Islamic Republic. The 
        trials of Iranian political prisoners and protestors typically 
        are held before judges of these Islamic Revolutionary Courts.
            (5) Unlike an adversarial system, the Islamic Republic's 
        judicial model is inquisitorial. The inquisitorial system gives 
        judges a significant role in deciding what evidence will be 
        considered, whether the accused can access legal counsel or a 
        fair trial, and the outcome of a case.
            (6) The Islamic Revolutionary Courts oversee cases 
        involving political crimes, and employ well-documented 
        practices that deny fairness and subvert justice. This includes 
        denying access to counsel, refusing to disclose the nature of 
        charges, using torture and sexual violence to extract 
        confessions, and using coerced confessions in proceedings, 
        among others.
            (7) On September 16, 2022, a 22-year-old woman named Jina 
        Mahsa Amini, died in the detention of the Morality Police after 
        being beaten and detained for allegedly transgressing the 
        Islamic Republic's morality laws concerning women's dress. This 
        tragic incident triggered widespread anti-gender apartheid, 
        pro-democracy protests across all of Iran, which have become 
        known globally as the ``Woman Life Freedom'' movement.
            (8) In the course of the protests, the Iranian security 
        forces' violent crackdown included mass arrests, well-
        documented beating of protestors, stifling internet access, and 
        shooting protestors with live ammunition. Weeks into the 
        protests, Iranian security forces had reportedly killed, 
        blinded, or injured hundreds of civilian protestors, including 
        women and children.
            (9) By November 2022, reports were ongoing and confirmed 
        that the Islamic Republic had commenced an intensive crackdown 
        on protestors, characterized by crimes against humanity, 
        including mass imprisonment of tens of thousands of civilians, 
        torture, gender and sexual violence, and heightened persecution 
        of ethnic and religious minorities.
            (10) On December 12, 2022, Majid Reza Rahnavard became the 
        first publicly executed Iranian for charges stemming from his 
        alleged involvement in the protests. In the time since, many 
        others have been executed, and many more have been detained, 
        tortured and killed in secret, and their families have been 
        threatened.
            (11) As a result of the intense crackdown, the UN Human 
        Rights Council established the Independent International Fact-
        Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) on 
        November 24, 2022. The FFMI mandate was to investigate alleged 
        human rights violations in Iran in connection with the protests 
        that began in Iran on September 16, 2022, especially with 
        respect to women and children.
            (12) Despite the efforts of the FFMI to engage with the 
        Islamic Republic, the Islamic Republic did not grant the FFMI 
        access to the country, nor respond to calls for meetings. The 
        FFMI investigation resulted in over 27,000 evidence items. It 
        conducted a total of 134 in-depth interviews with victims and 
        witnesses, including 49 women, and 85 men, both inside and 
        outside the country, and gathered evidence and analysis from 
        experts on digital and medical forensics, and domestic and 
        international law, among others.
            (13) On March 18, 2024, the FFMI issued its report 
        following its investigation, and found that Islamic Republic 
        authorities were responsible for egregious human rights 
        violations in connection with the Jina Mahsa Amini protests. 
        The FFMI confirmed the use of unnecessary and disproportionate 
        force on peaceful protests, resulting in unlawful killings and 
        injuries of protesters. The FFMI found that at least nine young 
        men were arbitrarily executed, following sham proceedings 
        before Islamic Revolutionary Courts that disregarded basic fair 
        trial and due process guarantees, creating terror among other 
        protestors. The FFMI further found that by January 2024, the 
        Iranian Regime's Islamic Revolutionary Courts had issued at 
        least 26 death sentences against protestors.
            (14) With respect to the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, the 
        FFMI found that trials involved systematic violations of due 
        process. Most protestors were brought before Revolutionary 
        Courts, on vague charges of ``corruption on earth'' or ``waging 
        war against God'' in relation to protected conduct or speech. 
        They were denied some of the basic procedural elements of due 
        process. Many were denied access to counsel, not able to access 
        their case files, or receive copies of their judgments. The 
        FFMI found that Islamic Revolutionary Courts showed clear bias 
        against protesters, and systematically dismissed complaints of 
        rape, torture and ill-treatment.
            (15) Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian dissident and rap artist 
        who criticizes the Islamic Republic's oppressive policies 
        through his music. He is widely revered inside Iran for 
        directly challenging the Islamic Republic's denial of human 
        rights. He was arrested in October 2022, in the aftermath of 
        the Woman Life Freedom protests, and has endured intense 
        psychological and physical torture, including prolonged 
        solitary confinement. In July 2023, he was sentenced to over 
        six years of prison for ``corruption on Earth,'' a crime 
        manufactured by the Islamic Regime to silence dissent. On 
        November 18, 2023, Salehi was released from prison on bail. A 
        few days later, he issued a public statement revealing the 
        depth of torture he had endured at the hands of the Islamic 
        Republic. On November 30, 2023, Toomaj Salehi was re-arrested 
        on charges of publishing false information and disturbing 
        public opinion. On April 24, 2024, despite a remand from the 
        Islamic Republic's Supreme Court, the Islamic Revolutionary 
        Court overseeing Salehi's case declared the decision of the 
        Supreme Court to be ``advisory'' and issued a death sentence to 
        Toomaj Salehi.
            (16) Examples of victims of the Islamic Revolutionary 
        Courts are plentiful. Vahid Afkari is a 37-year-old Iranian who 
        was arrested along with his brothers Habib and Navid Afkari 
        during the 2018 Iranian protests. All three were tortured into 
        confessing to killing a security officer. On September 12, 
        2020, Navid Afkari was executed. Vahid Afkari remains 
        imprisoned, and has been held in solitary confinement for over 
        1,000 days. He is denied medical treatment for the injuries he 
        has sustained from torture and suicide attempts.
            (17) Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian human rights Activist, 
        the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and the vice president of 
        the Defenders of Human Rights Center, a human rights 
        organization based in Tehran. She has been repeatedly 
        prosecuted by the Islamic Republic due to her outspoken 
        positions against the government's human rights abuses. She is 
        currently imprisoned, and routinely subjected to prolonged 
        solitary confinement, psychological torture, and physical 
        abuse.
            (18) Fatemeh Sepehri is an Iranian political and women's 
        rights activist and a political prisoner. She is a signatory of 
        the ``Statement of 14 Political Activists,'' a series of open 
        letters that called for the resignation of the Supreme Leader 
        of Iran, the abolition of the Islamic Republic, and the 
        establishment of a secular democracy. She was arrested on 
        September 21, 2022 during the Woman Life Freedom protests, and 
        is imprisoned in solitary confinement.
            (19) Saman Yasin, a well-known and acclaimed 27-year-old 
        Kurdish artist and rapper, has been a vocal critic of the 
        Islamic Republic and openly supported Woman Life Freedom 
        protestors in his social media. In November 2022, he received a 
        death sentence, which he appealed. Although the Supreme Court 
        of the Islamic Republic overturned his death sentence, Yasin 
        has been denied a fair trial, and suffers ongoing psychological 
        and physical torture while imprisoned, including involuntary 
        admissions to psychiatric hospitals. His fate is part of a 
        larger pattern of torture tactics against political prisoners, 
        including injections and the administration of unidentified 
        pills. As a result of his severe and enduring torture, on 
        February 27, 2024, Saman Yasin wrote an open letter to the head 
        of the Islamic Republic's judiciary, in which he demanded his 
        own execution.
            (20) Nika Shakarami was a 16-year-old Iranian girl who 
        actively participated in nonviolent protests after the killing 
        of Jina Mahsa Amini. She disappeared during the Woman Life 
        Freedom protests, and her family found her shattered body in a 
        mortuary ten days after her disappearance. Despite Islamic 
        Republic authorities denying any wrongdoing, a subsequent 
        leaked internal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps document 
        revealed that she had been taken into custody, bound in a van, 
        sexually assaulted by one of three men, and spent her final 
        minutes being fatally beaten by all three men.
            (21) Nika Shakarami, along with Sarina Esmailzadeh and 
        Hadis Najafi, two other young women murdered by the Islamic 
        Republic, became symbols of the ongoing protests in Iran. 
        Despite attempts by authorities to suppress information about 
        Shakarami's death, international media coverage and social 
        media tributes highlighted her story, sparking outrage and 
        further fueling the protests. Nika Shakarami is a testament to 
        the untold number of protestors that never had the prospect of 
        appearing before an Islamic Revolutionary Court. Had she 
        survived; she likely would have been taken before an Islamic 
        Revolutionary Court, based on manufactured charges, for a trial 
        that would offer no due process, insufficient access to legal 
        counsel, and false confessions based on torture.
            (22) There are also numerous reported cases of American 
        citizens and U.S. Legal Permanent Residents being arbitrarily 
        detained, subjected to sham trials, and unjustly imprisoned by 
        Iranian Revolutionary courts on baseless charges.
            (23) Examples of such cases include Jason Rezaian, a 
        Washington Post journalist who was imprisoned for over 500 days 
        on charges of espionage, Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American 
        businessman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges 
        of spying and collaborating with a hostile government, and Amir 
        Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine and an Iranian American who 
        accused of espionage and was sentenced to death, but the 
        sentence was later overturned and then retried and sentenced to 
        10 years in prison.

SEC. 3. SANCTIONS ON JUDGES OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY COURTS.

    (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the United States shall stand with and support the 
        people of Iran in their demand for fundamental human rights and 
        an end to gender apartheid.
            (2) the United States shall continue to hold the Islamic 
        Republic of Iran, and all its branches of government, including 
        the judiciary and its judges, accountable for abuses of human 
        rights, crimes against humanity, corruption, and the export of 
        terrorism; and
            (3) the Islamic Republic must immediately end its gross 
        violations of internationally recognized human rights.
    (b) In General.--
            (1) Determination required.--Not later than 90 days and 
        annually thereafter after the date of the enactment of this 
        Act, the President shall determine whether the sanctions listed 
        in paragraph (2) apply with respect to each foreign person 
        described in subsection (c), and impose all applicable such 
        sanctions with respect to each such foreign person and entity.
            (2) Sanctions listed.--The sanctions listed in this 
        paragraph are the following:
                    (A) Sanctions described in section 105(c) of the 
                Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and 
                Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8514(c)).
                    (B) Sanctions applicable with respect to a person 
                pursuant to Executive Order 13553 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note; 
                relating to blocking property of certain persons with 
                respect to serious human rights abuses by the 
                Government of Iran).
                    (C) Sanctions applicable with respect to a person 
                pursuant to Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note; 
                relating to blocking property and prohibiting 
                transactions with persons who commit, threaten to 
                commit, or support terrorism).
                    (D) Sanctions applicable with respect to a person 
                pursuant to Executive Order 13818 (relating to blocking 
                the property of persons involved in serious human 
                rights abuse or corruption).
                    (E) Sanctions applicable with respect to a person 
                pursuant to Executive Order 13876 (relating to imposing 
                sanctions with respect to Iran).
                    (F) Penalties and visa ban applicable with respect 
                to a person pursuant to section 7031(c) of the 
                Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related 
                Programs Appropriations Act, 2021.
            (3) Form of determination.--The determination required by 
        paragraph (1) shall be provided in an unclassified form but may 
        contain a classified annex provided separately containing 
        additional contextual information pertaining to justification 
        for the issuance of any waiver issued, as described in 
        paragraph (1)(C)(ii). The unclassified portion of such 
        determination shall be made available on a publicly available 
        internet website of the Federal Government.
    (c) Foreign Persons Described.--The foreign persons described in 
this subsection are the following:
            (1) Adjudicators and investigators including judges, 
        prosecutors and investigators of the various branches of the 
        Islamic Revolutionary Courts involved in overseeing, 
        committing, or adjudicating based on inhumane treatment of 
        prisoners of conscious including political prisoners from 
        detention to sentencing.
    (d) Congressional Oversight.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 60 days after receiving a 
        request from the chairman and ranking member of one of the 
        appropriate congressional committees with respect to whether a 
        person meets the criteria of a person described in subsection 
        (c), the President shall--
                    (A) determine if the person meets such criteria; 
                and
                    (B) submit a classified or unclassified report to 
                such chairman and ranking member with respect to such 
                determination that includes a statement of whether or 
                not the President imposed or intends to impose 
                sanctions with respect to the person pursuant to this 
                section.
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this 
        subsection, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
        means--
                    (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 
                of Representatives; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
                Senate.

SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that--
            (1) the legal and bureaucratic apparatus of the Islamic 
        Revolutionary Courts facilitates the Islamic Republic in 
        shielding human rights abuses from scrutiny;
            (2) judgments, sentences and other official acts that 
        emanate from the Islamic Revolutionary Courts should not be 
        afforded judicial deference by the international legal 
        community and may serve as evidence of torture and human rights 
        violations;
            (3) the Islamic Republic of Iran should immediately stop 
        violating the human rights of political prisoners or any person 
        with a proceeding before the Islamic Revolutionary Courts, 
        including by--
                    (A) torture;
                    (B) assault;
                    (C) denial of access to health care; and
                    (D) denial of a fair trial; and
            (4) the Islamic Republic of Iran should immediately release 
        all political prisoners.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Political prisoner.--The term ``political prisoner'' 
        means a person who has been detained or imprisoned on 
        politically motivated grounds.

SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.

    If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision 
to any person or circumstance, is found to be unconstitutional, the 
remainder of this Act, or the application of that provision to other 
persons or circumstances, shall not be affected.
                                 <all>
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