I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 589
To impose sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran and the President
of Iran and their respective offices for human rights abuses and support
for terrorism.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY27, 2023
Mr. B
ANKS(for himself, Mr. GALLAGHER, Mr. WALTZ, Ms. TENNEY, Mr.
W
ILSONof South Carolina, Mr. CRENSHAW, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. WITT-
MAN, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. FALLON, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. MUR-
PHY, Mrs. HARSHBARGER, Mrs. RODGERSof Washington, Mr. GUEST,
Mr. L
AMBORN, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. SWALWELL, and Ms. WASSERMAN
S
CHULTZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on the Ju-
diciary, Financial Services, and Ways and Means, for a period to be sub-
sequently 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 Supreme Leader of Iran and
the President of Iran and their respective offices for
human rights abuses and support for terrorism.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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•HR 589 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mahsa Amini Human 2
rights and Security Accountability Act’’ or the ‘‘MAHSA 3
Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS ON IRAN’S SUPREME 5
LEADER’S OFFICE, ITS APPOINTEES, AND ANY 6
AFFILIATED PERSONS. 7
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8
(1) The Supreme Leader is an institution of the 9
Islamic Republic of Iran. 10
(2) The Supreme Leader holds ultimate author-11
ity over Iran’s judiciary and security apparatus, in-12
cluding the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, 13
law enforcement forces under the Interior Ministry, 14
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and 15
the Basij, a nationwide volunteer paramilitary group 16
subordinate to the IRGC, all of which have engaged 17
in human rights abuses in Iran. Additionally the 18
IRGC, a United States designated Foreign Terrorist 19
Organization, which reports to the Supreme Leader, 20
continues to perpetrate terrorism around the globe, 21
including attempts to kill and kidnap American citi-22
zens on United States soil. 23
(3) The Supreme Leader appoints the head of 24
Iran’s judiciary. International observers continue to 25
criticize the lack of independence of Iran’s judicial 26
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•HR 589 IH
system and maintained that trials disregarded inter-1
national standards of fairness. 2
(4) The revolutionary courts, created by Iran’s 3
former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, within 4
Iran’s judiciary, are chiefly responsible for hearing 5
cases of political offenses, operate in parallel to 6
Iran’s criminal justice system and routinely hold 7
grossly unfair trials without due process, handing 8
down predetermined verdicts and rubberstamping 9
executions for political purpose. 10
(5) The Iranian security and law enforcement 11
forces engage in serious human rights abuse at the 12
behest of the Supreme Leader. 13
(6) Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, sits at the 14
helm of the most sanctioned cabinet in Iranian his-15
tory which includes internationally sanctioned rights 16
violators. Raisi has supported the recent crackdown 17
on protestors and is rights violator himself, having 18
served on a ‘‘death commission’’ in 1988 that led to 19
the execution of several thousand political prisoners 20
in Iran. He most recently served as the head of 21
Iran’s judiciary, a position appointed by Iran’s cur-22
rent Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and may likely 23
be a potential candidate to replace Khamenei as 24
Iran’s next Supreme Leader. 25
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(7) On September 16th, 2022, 22-year-old 1
woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the detention of the 2
Morality Police after being beaten and detained for 3
allegedly transgressing discriminatory dress codes 4
for women. This tragic incident triggered wide-5
spread, pro-women’s rights, pro-democracy protests 6
across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, calling for the end 7
to Iran’s theocratic regime. 8
(8) In the course of the protests, the Iranian 9
security forces’ violent crackdown includes mass ar-10
rests, well documented beating of protestors, throt-11
tling of the internet and telecommunications serv-12
ices, and shooting protestors with live ammunition. 13
Five weeks into the protests, Iranian security forces 14
have reportedly killed hundreds of protestors and 15
other civilians, including women and children, and 16
wounded many more. 17
(9) Iran’s Supreme Leader is the leader of the 18
‘‘Axis of Resistance’’, which is a network of 19
Tehran’s terror proxy and partner militias material 20
supported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 21
that targets the United States as well as its allies 22
and partners. 23
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-24
gress that— 25
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•HR 589 IH
(1) the United States shall stand with and sup-1
port the people of Iran in their demand for funda-2
mental human rights; and 3
(2) the United States shall continue to hold the 4
Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly the Supreme 5
Leader and President, accountable for abuses of 6
human rights, corruption, and export of terrorism. 7
(c) I
NGENERAL.— 8
(1) D
ETERMINATION REQUIRED .—Not later 9
than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this 10
Act, and annually thereafter, the President shall de-11
termine whether the sanctions listed in paragraph 12
(2) apply with respect to each person and entity de-13
scribed in subsection (d), and impose all applicable 14
such sanctions with respect to each such person and 15
entity. 16
(2) S
ANCTIONS LISTED.—The sanctions listed 17
in this paragraph are the following: 18
(A) Sanctions described in section 105(c) 19
of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Account-20
ability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 21
8514(c)). 22
(B) Sanctions applicable with respect to a 23
person pursuant to Executive Order 13553 (50 24
U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking property 25
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•HR 589 IH
of certain persons with respect to serious 1
human rights abuses by the Government of 2
Iran). 3
(C) Sanctions applicable with respect to a 4
person pursuant to Executive Order 13224 (50 5
U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking property 6
and prohibiting transactions with persons who 7
commit, threaten to commit, or support ter-8
rorism). 9
(D) Sanctions applicable with respect to a 10
person pursuant to Executive Order 13818 (re-11
lating to blocking the property of persons in-12
volved in serious human rights abuse or corrup-13
tion). 14
(E) Sanctions applicable with respect to a 15
person pursuant to Executive Order 13876 (re-16
lating to imposing sanctions with respect to 17
Iran). 18
(F) Penalties and visa bans applicable with 19
respect to a person pursuant to section 7031(c) 20
of the Department of State, Foreign Oper-21
ations, and Related Programs Appropriations 22
Act, 2021. 23
(d) P
ERSONSDESCRIBED.—The persons described in 24
this subsection are the following: 25
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•HR 589 IH
(1) The Supreme Leader of Iran and any offi-1
cial in the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran. 2
(2) The President of Iran and any official in 3
the Office of the President of Iran or the President’s 4
cabinet, including cabinet ministers and executive 5
vice presidents. 6
(3) Any entity, including foundations and eco-7
nomic conglomerates, overseen by the Office of the 8
Supreme Leader of Iran which is complicit in financ-9
ing or resourcing of human rights abuses or support 10
for terrorism. 11
(4) Any official of any entity owned or con-12
trolled by the Supreme Leader of Iran or the Office 13
of the Supreme Leader of Iran. 14
(5) Any person determined by the Secretary of 15
the Treasury, in consultation with or at the rec-16
ommendation of the Secretary of State— 17
(A) to be a person appointed by the Su-18
preme Leader of Iran, the Office of the Su-19
preme Leader of Iran, the President of Iran, or 20
the Office of the President of Iran to a position 21
as a state official of Iran, or as the head of any 22
entity located in Iran or any entity located out-23
side of Iran that is owned or controlled by one 24
or more entities in Iran; 25
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(B) to have materially assisted, sponsored, 1
or provided financial, material, or technological 2
support for, or goods or services to or in sup-3
port of any person whose property and interests 4
in property are blocked pursuant to this section; 5
(C) to be owned or controlled by, or to 6
have acted or purported to act for or on behalf 7
of, directly or indirectly any person whose prop-8
erty and interests in property are blocked pur-9
suant to this section; or 10
(D) to be a member of the board of direc-11
tors or a senior executive officer of any person 12
whose property and interests in property are 13
blocked pursuant to this section. 14
(e) C
ONGRESSIONALOVERSIGHT.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 16
receiving a request from the chairman and ranking 17
member of one of the appropriate congressional com-18
mittees with respect to whether a person meets the 19
criteria of a person described in subsection (d)(5), 20
the President shall— 21
(A) determine if the person meets such cri-22
teria; and 23
(B) submit a classified or unclassified re-24
port to such chairman and ranking member 25
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with respect to such determination that includes 1
a statement of whether or not the President im-2
posed or intends to impose sanctions with re-3
spect to the person pursuant to this section. 4
(2) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -5
TEES DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘ap-6
propriate congressional committees’’ means— 7
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 8
the House of Representatives; and 9
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 10
the Senate. 11
Æ
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