A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill on Friday that would impose targeted sanctions on Iranian officials and judges who arrest, jail and impose death sentences on dissidents.
Targeting Oppressive Officers to Mitigate Abuse in the Judiciary Act would impose sanctions “on the judges, prosecutors and investigators of the Islamic Republic’s Islamic Revolutionary Courts, which are involved in sham trials, torture, and inhumane treatment and sentencing of Iranian protesters and political dissidents.”
The bill is also known as the TOOMAJ Act, aptly corresponding with the first name of a dissident rapper, Toomaj Salehi, who has been incarcerated in Iran and sentenced to death. The young artist, known to millions of Iranians as Toomaj, published protest songs on social media during anti-government protests in 2022, known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Toomaj has become a symbol of arbitrary arrests, death sentences and hangings of dissidents in Iran. Trials are usually held behind closed doors, without an adequate defense team and due process. Charges are vague statements based on arbitrary concepts of Iran’s Islamic laws, such as dishonoring sanctities, or insulting the Supreme Leader. A protester demanding freedom for women or prisoners can be charged with endangering national security.
“Toomaj Salehi has used his platform to give a voice to the voiceless and bravely speak out against the Iran regime’s torture, abuse, and crackdown against the free will of the Iranian people," Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., one of the bill's lead sponsors, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Unfortunately, he is just the latest victim of the regime’s cruelty.”
She added that the bill will allow the US “to stand side by side with Toomaj and other peaceful protesters demanding basic human rights and take targeted action against the Iran regime.”
TOOMAJ Act was introduced by Representatives Young Kim (R-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), and David Trone (D-MD), marks a vital progression in the fight against human rights abuses in Iran. An Iranian American advocacy group in Washington said that the bill will also penalize “hostage taking of Americans and legal residents, a nefarious tool long used by the Islamic Republic.”
US lawmakers have introduced an array of bills since September 2022, when Mahsa Amini was arrested for improper hijab in Tehran and received fatal head injuries in police custody. Her death three days later sparked the largest anti-government protests in 45 years in Iran.
The most famous bill targeting human rights abuses in Iran was the MAHSA Act that passed the US Congress in April. The Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act, or simply the MAHSA Act, will see the imposition of sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader’s office, its appointees and anyone affiliated with the office and its work. However, it is not clear to what extent the Biden administration will pursue the bill’s implementation.
