I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 9075 
To call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately end violations of 
the human rights, and facilitate the unconditional, immediate release, 
of all arbitrarily detained individuals, including peaceful protesters, polit-
ical prisoners, and prisoners of conscience, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 29, 2022 
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, 
Ms. NORTON, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. SWALWELL, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. 
MOULTON, and Ms. ROSS) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately end 
violations of the human rights, and facilitate the uncon-
ditional, immediate release, of all arbitrarily detained 
individuals, including peaceful protesters, political pris-
oners, and prisoners of conscience, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Support for Iranian 
Political Prisoners Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) 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 free-
dom of thought, conscience, and religion. 
(2) As a member state of the United Nations 
and other international institutions, the Islamic Re-
public of Iran is bound by international commit-
ments concerning human rights and the rule of law. 
Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic of Iran has sys-
tematically and consistently curtailed the ability of 
Iranian citizens to exercise fundamental freedoms 
without fear of retribution. 
(3) On September 13, 2022, 22-year-old Masha 
Amini was detained by the Islamic Republic of 
Iran’s Morality Police, for allegedly having visible 
hair under her headscarf. 
(4) On September 19, 2022, in response to her 
death, protesters took to the streets across Iran. The 
Iranian Government sought to put down these pro-
tests with violence, which has resulted in the deaths 
of at least 48 people, including 20-year-old Hadis 
Najafi, who was shot multiple times by security 
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forces according to eyewitnesses, and the arrests of 
hundreds more. 
(5) On October 6, 2021, the United Nations 
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 
released a statement expressing grave concern re-
garding the consistent practice of the Islamic Repub-
lic of Iran to deny medical treatment to detainees, 
including political prisoners. Denials of medical 
treatment worsened during the year 2021 due to the 
spread of COVID–19 throughout prisons. The state-
ment also called for the unconditional release of 
human rights defenders, attorneys, political pris-
oners, peaceful protesters, and all other persons de-
prived of liberty for expressing views or otherwise 
exercising rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 
(6) On December 16, 2021, the General Assem-
bly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 76/ 
178, criticizing the practices of the Islamic Republic 
of Iran and calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran 
to implement significant reforms, including— 
(A) ensuring that no person is subject to 
torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading 
treatment; 
(B) ceasing the widespread and systematic 
use of arbitrary arrests and detentions; 
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(C) releasing persons detained for exer-
cising the human rights and fundamental free-
doms; and 
(D) improving the conditions of prisons. 
(7) According to the 2021 Country Reports on 
Human Rights Practices issued by the Department 
of State, the Islamic Republic of Iran took few steps 
during the year 2021 to identify, investigate, pros-
ecute, or punish persons at all levels of the Iranian 
Government and the Iranian security forces. Such 
reports include credible accounts that the Islamic 
Republic of Iran or agents of the Islamic Republic 
of Iran, have been implicated in— 
(A) unlawful or arbitrary killings; 
(B) forced disappearances; 
(C) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrad-
ing treatment; 
(D) arbitrary arrest or detention; 
(E) harsh or life-threatening prison condi-
tions; 
(F) lack of judiciary independence, particu-
larly regarding the revolutionary courts; 
(G) severe restrictions on free expression 
and media, including censorship, criminalization 
of libel and slander, and violence, threats of vio-
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lence, unjustified arrests, and prosecutions 
against journalists; and 
(H) serious restrictions on and harassment 
of domestic or international human rights orga-
nizations. 
(8) The 2021 Country Reports on Human 
Rights Practices further reported that political pris-
oners in the Islamic Republic of Iran were at greater 
risk of torture and abuse in detention and were 
often mixed with the general prison population. 
Former prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran re-
ported that government authorities often threatened 
political prisoners with transfer to criminal wards, 
where attacks by fellow prisoners were more likely. 
Human rights activists and international media or-
ganizations reported cases of political prisoners con-
fined with persons accused of and convicted of vio-
lent crime. The Islamic Republic of Iran also often 
exiled political prisoners to prisons in remote prov-
inces far from the families of such prisoners as a 
means of reprisal, denied such prisoners a right to 
correspondence and access to legal counsel, and held 
such prisoners in solitary confinement for long peri-
ods. 
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(9) According to the organization Iran Human 
Rights, in October of 2021, political prisoners 
Shapour Ehsanirad, Pouya Ghobadi, Esmail Gerami, 
Akbar Bagheri, and Akbar Shirazi were seriously in-
jured after being attacked by prisoners accused of or 
convicted of violent crime. 
(10) According to the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the 
Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ministry of Intelligence 
of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Intelligence 
Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard 
Corps control secret detention centers with ‘‘deplor-
able’’ conditions. Such centers often house, for ex-
tended pretrial detentions, political prisoners and 
other persons arbitrarily arrested on national secu-
rity charges. For example, Ali Younesi and 
Amirhossein Moradi have been arbitrarily detained 
in section 209 of Evin Prison since such persons 
were arrested in April of 2020. Evin Prison, a noto-
rious facility located in Tehran, is under the control 
of the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Repub-
lic of Iran and is a primary prison for political de-
tainees. 
(11) Attorneys who defend political prisoners 
detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran are regu-
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larly arrested, detained, and subjected to excessive 
punishments for engaging in regular professional ac-
tivities. The Islamic Republic of Iran also continues 
to imprison attorneys and others affiliated with the 
advocacy group Defenders of Human Rights Center. 
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, 
not less than 5 human rights attorneys—Soheila 
Hejab, Payam Derafshan, Mohammad Nafari, 
Amirsalar Davoudi, and Nasrin Sotoudeh—were in 
prison during the year 2021 for performing human 
rights work. 
(12) With limited options for recourse, political 
prisoners regularly participate in hunger strikes to 
raise awareness about prison conditions and the 
plight of political prisoners, who are often denied 
medical treatment. In January of 2022, according to 
reporting by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 6 
prisoners in Evin Prison went on a hunger strike 
following the death of jailed Iranian poet and 
filmmaker Baktash Abtin. At least 3 other prisoners 
at the Gharchak Women’s Prison and the Greater 
Tehran Central Penitentiary joined the hunger 
strike. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported 
that dozens of prisoners are believed to have died in 
the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran due to 
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mistreatment, including beatings, torture, and a lack 
of proper medical care. 
(13) In August of 2021, following the release of 
footage of mistreatment and torture at Evin Prison, 
the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and 
Labor of the Department of State issued a state-
ment stating that the ‘‘recently leaked footage of 
[the] notorious Evin Prison confirms what we have 
long known: torture is systemic in Iranian prisons. 
We call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to release 
all political prisoners and to treat all prisoners with 
dignity’’. 
(14) According to the organization United for 
Iran, more than 556 prisoners of conscience, includ-
ing persons jailed for religious beliefs, were held in 
200 or more prisons in the Islamic Republic of Iran 
as of May of 2022. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States that— 
(1) the Islamic Republic of Iran should allow 
the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situa-
tion of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran 
unimpeded access to facilitate the full implementa-
tion of the mandate of the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur, including— 
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(A) investigating alleged violations of 
human rights that are occurring or have oc-
curred both within prisons and elsewhere; 
(B) transmitting urgent appeals and let-
ters to the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding 
alleged violations of human rights; and 
(C) engaging with relevant stakeholders in 
the Islamic Republic of Iran and the sur-
rounding region; 
(2) the Islamic Republic of Iran should imme-
diately end violations of the human rights of political 
prisoners or persons imprisoned for exercising the 
right to freedom of speech, including— 
(A) torture; 
(B) assault; 
(C) denial of access to health care; and 
(D) denial of a fair trial; 
(3) all arbitrarily detained individuals, including 
peaceful protesters, political prisoners, and prisoners 
of conscience, should be unconditionally and imme-
diately released; 
(4) all diplomatic tools of the United States 
should be invoked to ensure that all arbitrarily de-
tained individuals, including political prisoners and 
prisoners of conscience in the Islamic Republic of 
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Iran are released, including raising individual cases 
of particular concern; and 
(5) all officials of the Government of the Is-
lamic Republic of Iran who are responsible for 
human rights abuses in the form of politically moti-
vated imprisonment should be held to account, in-
cluding through the imposition of sanctions pursuant 
to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Account-
ability Act (22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) and other ap-
plicable statutory authorities of the United States. 
SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE FOR PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE AND 
POLITICAL PRISONERS. 
The Secretary of State is authorized to continue to 
provide assistance to civil society organizations that sup-
port arbitrarily detained individuals, including prisoners 
of conscience and political prisoners in the Islamic Repub-
lic of Iran, including organizations that— 
(1) work to secure the release of such prisoners; 
(2) document violations of human rights with 
respect to such prisoners; 
(3) support international advocacy to raise 
awareness of issues relating to such prisoners; 
(4) support the health, including mental health, 
of such prisoners; and 
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(5) provide post-incarceration assistance to en-
able such prisoners to resume normal lives, including 
access to education, employment, or other forms of 
reparation. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ARBITRARILY DETAINED.—The term ‘‘arbi-
trarily detained’’, with respect to an individual, 
means an individual deprived of liberty due to the 
exercise of the rights or freedoms described— 
(A) in article 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 or 21 
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; 
or 
(B) in article 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26 
or 27 of the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights. 
(2) POLITICAL PRISONER.—The term ‘‘political 
prisoner’’ means a person who has been detained or 
imprisoned on politically motivated grounds and may 
include persons that— 
(A) have used violence; 
(B) have advocated violence or hatred; or 
(C) have committed a minor offense that 
serves as a pretext for politically motivated im-
prisonment. 
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(3) PRISONER
OF
CONSCIENCE.—The term 
‘‘prisoner of conscience’’ means a person who— 
(A) is imprisoned or otherwise physically 
restricted solely in response to the peaceful ex-
ercise of the human rights of such person; and 
(B) has not used violence or advocated vio-
lence or hatred. 
Æ 
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