Masih Alinejad HUNT Act of 2021
Bill: S.3347 | Sponsor: Sen. Toomey, Patrick (R-PA)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Masih Alinejad Harassment and Unlawful Targeting Act of 2021 or the Masih Alinejad HUNT Act of 2021
This bill imposes sanctions on foreign persons (i.e., individuals or entities) that are acting on behalf of Iran's government and involved in the harassment of certain individuals, such as human rights activists.
The Department of State must periodically report to Congress the identities of foreign persons acting on behalf of Iran's government that are knowingly responsible for or complicit in the surveillance, harassment, imprisonment, or killing of citizens of Iran or the United States who seek to (1) expose corruption or illegal activity by Iranian government officials; (2) obtain, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights; or (3) obtain, defend, or promote the rights and well-being of women, religious and ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQ community in Iran. The report must include foreign persons involved in such actions that occur inside or outside Iran.
The President must impose property-blocking sanctions on persons identified in the report, as well as visa-blocking sanctions on the identified individuals.
The Department of the Treasury must submit to Congress a report identifying any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts a significant transaction with a person sanctioned under this bill. Treasury may prohibit the opening, or prohibit or impose strict conditions on the maintaining of a U.S. correspondent account or a payable-through account by such a financial institution.

To identify and impose sanctions with respect to persons who are 
 responsible for or complicit in abuses toward dissidents on behalf of 
                        the Government of Iran.

    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 ``Masih Alinejad Harassment and 
Unlawful Targeting Act of 2021'' or the ``Masih Alinejad HUNT Act of 
2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
surveils, harasses, terrorizes, tortures, abducts, and murders 
individuals who peacefully defend human rights and freedoms in Iran, 
and innocent entities and individuals considered by the Government of 
Iran to be enemies of that regime, including United States citizens on 
United States soil, and takes foreign nationals hostage, including in 
the following instances:
            (1) In 2021, Iranian intelligence agents were indicted for 
        plotting to kidnap United States citizen, women's rights 
        activist, and journalist Masih Alinejad, from her home in New 
        York City, in retaliation for exercising her rights under the 
        First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 
        Iranian agents allegedly spent at least approximately half a 
        million dollars to capture the outspoken critic of the 
        authoritarianism of the Government of Iran, and studied 
        evacuating her by military-style speedboats to Venezuela before 
        rendition to Iran.
            (2) Prior to the New York kidnapping plot, Ms. Alinejad's 
        family in Iran was instructed by authorities to lure Ms. 
        Alinejad to Turkey. In an attempt to intimidate her into 
        silence, the Government of Iran arrested 3 of Ms. Alinejad's 
        family members in 2019, and sentenced her brother to 8 years in 
        prison for refusing to denounce her.
            (3) According to Federal prosecutors, the same Iranian 
        intelligence network that allegedly plotted to kidnap Ms. 
        Alinejad is also targeting critics of the Government of Iran 
        who live in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab 
        Emirates.
            (4) In 2021, an Iranian diplomat was convicted in Belgium 
        of attempting to carry out a 2018 bombing of a dissident rally 
        in France.
            (5) In 2021, a Danish high court found a Norwegian citizen 
        of Iranian descent guilty of illegal espionage and complicity 
        in a failed plot to kill an Iranian Arab dissident figure in 
        Denmark.
            (6) In 2021, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 
        appealed to the United Nations to protect BBC Persian employees 
        in London who suffer regular harassment and threats of 
        kidnapping by Iranian government agents.
            (7) In 2021, 15 militants allegedly working on behalf of 
        the Government of Iran were arrested in Ethiopia for plotting 
        to attack citizens of Israel, the United States, and the United 
        Arab Emirates, according to United States officials.
            (8) In 2020, Iranian agents allegedly kidnapped United 
        States resident and Iranian-German journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, 
        while he was traveling to India through Dubai. Iranian 
        authorities announced they had seized Mr. Sharmahd in ``a 
        complex operation'', and paraded him blindfolded on state 
        television. Mr. Sharmahd is arbitrarily detained in Iran, 
        allegedly facing the death penalty. In 2009, Mr. Sharmahd was 
        the target of an alleged Iran-directed assassination plot in 
        Glendora, California.
            (9) In 2020, the Government of Turkey released 
        counterterrorism files exposing how Iranian authorities 
        allegedly collaborated with drug gangs to kidnap Habib Chabi, 
        an Iranian-Swedish activist for Iran's Arab minority. In 2020, 
        the Government of Iran allegedly lured Mr. Chabi to Istanbul 
        through a female agent posing as a potential lover. Mr. Chabi 
        was then allegedly kidnapped from Istanbul, and smuggled into 
        Iran where he faces execution, following a sham trial.
            (10) In 2020, a United States-Iranian citizen and an 
        Iranian resident of California pleaded guilty to charges of 
        acting as illegal agents of the Government of Iran by 
        surveilling Jewish student facilities, including the Hillel 
        Center and Rohr Chabad Center at the University of Chicago, in 
        addition to surveilling and collecting identifying information 
        about United States citizens and nationals who are critical of 
        the Iranian regime.
            (11) In 2019, 2 Iranian intelligence officers at the 
        Iranian consulate in Turkey allegedly orchestrated the 
        assassination of Iranian dissident journalist Masoud Molavi 
        Vardanjani, who was shot while walking with a friend in 
        Istanbul. Unbeknownst to Mr. Molavi, his ``friend'' was in fact 
        an undercover Iranian agent and the leader of the killing 
        squad, according to a Turkish police report.
            (12) In 2019, around 1,500 people were allegedly killed 
        amid a less than 2 week crackdown by security forces on anti-
        government protests across Iran, including at least an alleged 
        23 children and 400 women.
            (13) In 2019, Iranian operatives allegedly lured Paris-
        based Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam to Iraq, where he was 
        abducted, and hanged in Iran for sedition.
            (14) In 2019, a Kurdistan regional court convicted an 
        Iranian female for trying to lure Voice of America reporter Ali 
        Javanmardi to a hotel room in Irbil, as part of a foiled 
        Iranian intelligence plot to kidnap and extradite Mr. 
        Javanmardi, a critic of the Government of Iran.
            (15) In 2019, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents 
        visited the rural Connecticut home of Iran-born United States 
        author and poet Roya Hakakian to warn her that she was the 
        target of an assassination plot orchestrated by the Government 
        of Iran.
            (16) In 2019, the Government of Denmark accused the 
        Government of Iran of directing the assassination of Iranian 
        Arab activist Ahmad Mola Nissi, in The Hague, and the 
        assassination of another opposition figure, Reza Kolahi Samadi, 
        who was murdered near Amsterdam in 2015.
            (17) In 2018, German security forces searched for 10 
        alleged spies who were working for Iran's al-Quds Force to 
        collect information on targets related to the local Jewish 
        community, including kindergartens.
            (18) In 2017, Germany convicted a Pakistani man for working 
        as an Iranian agent to spy on targets including a former German 
        lawmaker and a French-Israeli economics professor.
            (19) In 2012, an Iranian American pleaded guilty to 
        conspiring with members of the Iranian military to bomb a 
        popular Washington, DC, restaurant with the aim of 
        assassinating the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United 
        States.
            (20) In 1996, agents of the Government of Iran allegedly 
        assassinated 5 Iranian dissident exiles across Turkey, 
        Pakistan, and Baghdad, over a 5-month period that year.
            (21) In 1992, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the 
        United Kingdom expelled 2 Iranians employed at the Iranian 
        Embassy in London and a third Iranian on a student visa amid 
        allegations they were plotting to kill Indian-born British 
        American novelist Salman Rushdie, pursuant to the fatwa issued 
        by then supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
            (22) In 1992, 4 Iranian Kurdish dissidents were 
        assassinated at a restaurant in Berlin, Germany, allegedly by 
        Iranian agents.
            (23) In 1992, singer, actor, poet, and gay Iranian 
        dissident Fereydoun Farrokhzad was found dead with multiple 
        stab wounds in his apartment in Germany. His death is allegedly 
        the work of Iran-directed agents.
            (24) In 1980, Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, a leading critic of 
        Iran and then president of the Iran Freedom Foundation, was 
        murdered in front of his Bethesda, Maryland, home by an 
        assassin disguised as a postal courier. The Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation had identified the ``mailman'' as Dawud 
        Salahuddin, born David Theodore Belfield. Mr. Salahuddin was 
        working as a security guard at an Iranian interest office in 
        Washington, DC, when he claims he accepted the assignment and 
        payment of $5,000 from the Government of Iran to kill Mr. 
        Tabatabaei.
            (25) Other exiled Iranian dissidents alleged to have been 
        victims of the Government of Iran's murderous extraterritorial 
        campaign include Shahriar Shafiq, Shapour Bakhtiar, and Gholam 
        Ali Oveissi.
            (26) Iranian Americans face an ongoing campaign of 
        intimidation both in the virtual and physical world by agents 
        and affiliates of the Government of Iran, which aims to stifle 
        freedom of expression and eliminate the threat Iranian 
        authorities believe democracy, justice, and gender equality 
        pose to their rule.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Admission; admitted; alien.--The terms ``admission'', 
        ``admitted'', and ``alien'' have the meanings given those terms 
        in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
        1101).
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
                Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
                Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on Financial Services and the 
                Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
                Representatives.
            (3) Correspondent account; payable-through account.--The 
        terms ``correspondent account'' and ``payable-through account'' 
        have the meanings given those terms in section 5318A of title 
        31, United States Code.
            (4) Foreign financial institution.--The term ``foreign 
        financial institution'' has the meaning of that term as 
        determined by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to section 
        104(i) of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and 
        Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8513(i)).
            (5) Foreign person.--The term ``foreign person'' means any 
        individual or entity that is not a United States person.
            (6) United states person.--The term ``United States 
        person'' means--
                    (A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully 
                admitted for permanent residence to the United States; 
                or
                    (B) an entity organized under the laws of the 
                United States or any jurisdiction within the United 
                States, including a foreign branch of such an entity.

SEC. 4. REPORT AND IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO PERSONS WHO 
              ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OR COMPLICIT IN ABUSES TOWARD 
              DISSIDENTS ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN.

    (a) Report Required.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 45 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in 
        consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director 
        of National Intelligence, and the Attorney General, shall 
        submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report 
        that--
                    (A) includes a detailed description and assessment 
                of--
                            (i) the state of human rights and the rule 
                        of law inside Iran, including the rights and 
                        well-being of women, religious and ethnic 
                        minorities, and the LGBTQ community in Iran;
                            (ii) actions taken by the Government of 
                        Iran during the year preceding submission of 
                        the report to target and silence dissidents 
                        both inside and outside of Iran who advocate 
                        for human rights inside Iran;
                            (iii) the methods used by the Government of 
                        Iran to target and silence dissidents both 
                        inside and outside of Iran; and
                            (iv) the means through which the Government 
                        of Iran finances efforts to target and silence 
                        dissidents both inside and outside of Iran;
                    (B) identifies foreign persons working as part of 
                the Government of Iran or acting on behalf of that 
                Government (including members of paramilitary 
                organizations such as Ansar-e-Hezbollah and Basij-e 
                Mostaz'afin), that the Secretary of State determines, 
                based on credible evidence, are knowingly responsible 
                for, complicit in or involved in ordering, conspiring, 
                planning or implementing the surveillance, harassment, 
                kidnapping, illegal extradition, imprisonment, torture, 
                killing, or assassination of citizens of Iran 
                (including citizens of Iran of dual nationality) or 
                citizens of the United States inside or outside Iran 
                who seek--
                            (i) to expose illegal or corrupt activity 
                        carried out by officials of the Government of 
                        Iran;
                            (ii) to obtain, exercise, defend, or 
                        promote internationally recognized human rights 
                        and freedoms, such as the freedoms of religion, 
                        expression, association, and assembly, and the 
                        rights to a fair trial and democratic 
                        elections, in Iran; or
                            (iii) to obtain, exercise, defend, or 
                        promote the rights and well-being of women, 
                        religious and ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQ 
                        community in Iran; and
                    (C) includes, for each foreign person identified 
                subparagraph (B), a clear explanation for why the 
                foreign person was so identified.
            (2) Updates of report.--The report required by paragraph 
        (1) shall be updated, and the updated version submitted to the 
        appropriate congressional committees, during the 10-year period 
        following the date of the enactment of this Act--
                    (A) not less frequently than annually; and
                    (B) with respect to matters relating to the 
                identification of foreign persons under paragraph 
                (1)(B), on an ongoing basis as new information becomes 
                available.
            (3) Form of report.--
                    (A) In general.--Each report required by paragraph 
                (1) and each update required by paragraph (2) shall be 
                submitted in unclassified form but may include a 
                classified annex.
                    (B) Public availability.--The Secretary of State 
                shall post the unclassified portion of each report 
                required by paragraph (1) and each update required by 
                paragraph (2) on a publicly available internet website 
                of the Department of State.
    (b) Imposition of Sanctions.--In the case of a foreign person 
identified under paragraph (1)(B) of subsection (a) in the most recent 
report or update submitted under that subsection, the President shall--
            (1) if the foreign person meets the criteria for the 
        imposition of sanctions under subsection (a) of section 1263 of 
        the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle 
        F of title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note), 
        impose sanctions under subsection (b) of that section; and
            (2) if the foreign person does not meet such criteria, 
        impose the sanctions described in subsection (c).
    (c) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions to be imposed under this 
subsection with respect to a foreign person are the following:
            (1) Blocking of property.--The President shall exercise all 
        powers granted to the President by the International Emergency 
        Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent 
        necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in all 
        property and interests in property of the person if such 
        property and interests in property are in the United States, 
        come within the United States, or are or come within the 
        possession or control of a United States person.
            (2) Ineligibility for visas, admission, or parole.--
                    (A) In general.--
                            (i) Visas, admission, or parole.--An alien 
                        described in subsection (a)(1)(B) is--
                                    (I) inadmissible to the United 
                                States;
                                    (II) ineligible to receive a visa 
                                or other documentation to enter the 
                                United States; and
                                    (III) otherwise ineligible to be 
                                admitted or paroled into the United 
                                States or to receive any other benefit 
                                under the Immigration and Nationality 
                                Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
                            (ii) Current visas revoked.--
                                    (I) In general.--The visa or other 
                                entry documentation of an alien 
                                described in subsection (a)(1)(B) shall 
                                be revoked, regardless of when such 
                                visa or other entry documentation is or 
                                was issued.
                                    (II) Immediate effect.--A 
                                revocation under subclause (I) shall--
                                            (aa) take effect 
                                        immediately; and
                                            (bb) automatically cancel 
                                        any other valid visa or entry 
                                        documentation that is in the 
                                        alien's possession.
    (d) Termination of Sanctions.--The President may terminate the 
application of sanctions under this section with respect to a person if 
the President determines and reports to the appropriate congressional 
committees, not later than 15 days before the termination of the 
sanctions that--
            (1) credible information exists that the person did not 
        engage in the activity for which sanctions were imposed;
            (2) the person has been prosecuted appropriately for the 
        activity for which sanctions were imposed; or
            (3) the person has--
                    (A) credibly demonstrated a significant change in 
                behavior;
                    (B) has paid an appropriate consequence for the 
                activity for which sanctions were imposed; and
                    (C) has credibly committed to not engage in an 
                activity described in subsection (a) in the future.

SEC. 5. REPORT AND IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FOREIGN 
              FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS CONDUCTING SIGNIFICANT 
              TRANSACTIONS WITH PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR OR COMPLICIT IN 
              ABUSES TOWARD DISSIDENTS ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF 
              IRAN.

    (a) Report Required.--
            (1) In general.--Not earlier than 30 days and not later 
        than 60 days after the Secretary of State submits to the 
        appropriate congressional committees a report required by 
        section 4(a), the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation 
        with the Secretary of State, shall submit to the appropriate 
        congressional committees a report that identifies any foreign 
        financial institution that knowingly conducts a significant 
        transaction with a foreign person identified in the report 
        submitted under section 4(a).
            (2) Form of report.--
                    (A) In general.--Each report required by paragraph 
                (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may 
                include a classified annex.
                    (B) Public availability.--The Secretary of the 
                Treasury shall post the unclassified portion of each 
                report required by paragraph (1) on a publicly 
                available internet website of the Department of the 
                Treasury.
    (b) Imposition of Sanctions.--The Secretary of the Treasury may 
prohibit the opening, or prohibit or impose strict conditions on the 
maintaining, in the United States of a correspondent account or a 
payable-through account by a foreign financial institution identified 
under subsection (a)(1).

SEC. 6. EXCEPTIONS; WAIVERS; IMPLEMENTATION.

    (a) Exceptions.--
            (1) Exception for intelligence, law enforcement, and 
        national security activities.--Sanctions under sections 4 and 5 
        shall not apply to any authorized intelligence, law 
        enforcement, or national security activities of the United 
        States.
            (2) Exception to comply with united nations headquarters 
        agreement.--Sanctions under section 4(c)(2) shall not apply 
        with respect to the admission of an alien to the United States 
        if the admission of the alien is necessary to permit the United 
        States to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters 
        of the United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, 
        and entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United 
        Nations and the United States, the Convention on Consular 
        Relations, done at Vienna April 24, 1963, and entered into 
        force March 19, 1967, or other applicable international 
        obligations.
    (b) National Security Waiver.--The President may waive the 
application of sanctions under section 4 with respect to a person if 
the President--
            (1) determines that the waiver is in the national security 
        interests of the United States; and
            (2) submits to the appropriate congressional committees a 
        report on the waiver and the reasons for the waiver.
    (c) Implementation; Penalties.--
            (1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all 
        authorities provided to the President under sections 203 and 
        205 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
        U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this Act.
            (2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to 
        violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of section 
        4(b)(1) or 5(b) or any regulation, license, or order issued to 
        carry out either such section shall be subject to the penalties 
        set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the 
        International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to 
        the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act 
        described in subsection (a) of that section.

SEC. 7. EXCEPTION RELATING TO IMPORTATION OF GOODS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 
the authorities and requirements to impose sanctions under this Act 
shall not include the authority or a requirement to impose sanctions on 
the importation of goods.
    (b) Good Defined.--In this section, the term ``good'' means any 
article, natural or manmade substance, material, supply or manufactured 
product, including inspection and test equipment, and excluding 
technical data.
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