Congressional Briefer

Targeting Oppressive Officers to Mitigate Abuse in the Iranian Judiciary Act

The TOOMAJ Act

The full name of this bill is Targeting Oppressive Officers to Mitigate Abuse in the Iranian Judiciary Act (the “TOOMAJ Act”).^[1] 

This bill is proportionate, timely and necessary in light of:

Update as of April 24, 2024: TOOMAJ SALEHI HAS BEEN ISSUED A DEATH SENTENCE BY AN ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY COURT IN IRAN.

1. Increased Executions Without Due Process: Iranian political prisoners subject to the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are facing an urgent and dire human rights crisis, and the steady stream of executions by the Islamic Republic continues unabated.  In March 2024, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran issued its first report on its investigation of the Islamic Republic’s conduct after the Mahsa Jina Amini protests began.  The report found that the Islamic Republic committed crimes against humanity, and that Islamic Revolutionary Courts serve as tools of oppression, citing tortured confessions and sham trials, among others;
2. Woman Life Freedom Movement: the grassroots, women-led movement by Iranian protestors against gender apartheid and human rights violations by the Islamic Republic, is subdued due to the Islamic Republic’s crackdown, not surrendered.  Iranian women continue to regularly defy the mandatory veil, and the Islamic Republic has deployed the full force of its morality police onto the streets of Iranian cities.  Iranian Americans have helped lead advocacy to amplify Iranian voices calling for human rights and democracy; and
3. Protecting Toomaj Salehi: uplifting the names of political prisoners has been shown to help secure release and improved conditions of imprisonment, including avoiding the death penalty.  Beloved Iranian political dissident Toomaj Salehi first was given a six-year sentence in relation to his activities during the Mahsa Jina Amini protests.  He was released on bail November 18, 2023, only to be re-arrested 12 days later on November 30, 2023, after he released a video detailing the torture he endured in prison.  Following re-arrest, it was announced that Salehi was sentenced for an additional year of imprisonment.  Toomaj’s lawyers appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court, which found a variety of technical issues with the Islamic Revolutionary Court’s handling of Toomaj’s case, and remanded it back to the lower court.  After remand from Iran’s Supreme Court, the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Esfahan, which oversees Toomaj’s case, declared that the decision from Iran’s highest court was guidance only, merely advisory, and ignored the higher court’s ruling.  This act further proves that the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are extrajudicial, and operate as an enforcement tool of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), rather than as judicial bodies.

The TOOMAJ Act:

1. calls for targeted sanctions on judges, prosecutors and investigators of all 70 branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts of Iran; and
2. codifies U.S. policy that judgments from the Islamic Revolutionary Courts issued against Iranian political prisoners should not be given judicial weight or deference.

Core Provisions

1. Targeted sanctions on judges, investigators and prosecutors of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts

This bill calls for targeted sanctions on judges, and leading investigators and prosecutors presiding over the 70 branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts.  The judiciary of Iran has long been a forum for state-sanctioned political oppression.  Distinct from other courts in the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are the main venue for cases involving allegations of espionage, treason, “waging war against God,” “spreading corruption on Earth,” and other political thought crimes.  These courts are notorious for issuing executions and harsh sentences, following sham trials based on evidence gathered under horrific physical, psychological and sexual torture.  

Previous global efforts to sanctions judges of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts have been piecemeal.  In 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Abdolghassem Salavati, presiding over Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, and Mohammad Moghisseh, who presided over Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.  In February 2023, the UK Government sanctioned three judges: 1) - Musa Asif al-Hosseini, Presiding Judge of Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Courts of Karaj (Alborz Province); 2) Hadi Mansouri, Presiding Judge of Branch 4 of the Revolutionary Courts of Mashhad; and 3) Morteza Barati, Presiding Judge of Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Courts of Isfahan.

Meanwhile, in Canada, as recently as June 2023, the Canadian Government announced sanctions on seven Islamic Revolutionary Court judges: 1) Morteza Barati, Judge, Esfahan Revolutionary Court; 2) Hadi Mansouri, Judge, Mashhad Revolutionary Court; 3) Musa Asif Al Hosseini, Judge, Karaj Revolutionary Court; 4) Seyed Mahmoud Sadati, Judge, Shiraz Revolutionary Court; 5) Mehrdad Tahamtan, Shiraz Advisory Judge of the Criminal Court; 6) Mohammad Moghiseh, Judge, Supreme Court – Tehran Revolutionary Court; and 7) Heidar Asiyabi, Judge, Gorgan Revolutionary Court.

The piecemeal approach to sanctions fails to capture the reality that the failures of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are systemic – and intentional.  The judges and prosecutors of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts are among the individuals most directly culpable for the suffering and torture of Iranian political prisoners.  Yet existing targeted sanctions are incongruent with the widespread, systemic harms inflicted by these courts.  The Iranian American community is asking Congress to use its power to correct this imbalance.

2. Codifying U.S. policy in support of Iranian victims of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts

The bill is an official act of Congress; it codifies U.S. policy and in so doing, sends an important and needed message of support to the Iranian American community, as well as to Iranian protestors in Iran.  The Statement of Policy in the bill signals that the U.S. Congress recognizes that judgments from the Islamic Revolutionary Courts lack due process, and are fundamentally flawed.

The Islamic Republic relentlessly has continued its crackdown against the Woman Life Freedom movement in Iran by implementing oppression through its “Islamic Revolutionary Courts.”  The Iranian American community is asking Congress to use its power to address the illegitimacy of the judicial apparatus being used to oppress and silence Iranian political protestors fighting for human rights, democracy, and an end to gender apartheid.  Above all, the Iranian American community wants to take every possible action to spare the life of Toomaj Salehi.