10 Iranian Judges Sanctioned by U.S. Allies — but Not Washington

Iranian authorities hanged two individuals in public who participated in the January 2026 Lion and Sun Revolution, the largest anti-regime uprising in the Islamic Republic’s history, in which millions took to the streets and some 40,000 were massacred. These executions and others like them are carried out through the regime’s Revolutionary Courts, a parallel judiciary outside the ordinary criminal and civil system that handles political and national security cases using charges like moharebeh, or “waging war against God,” and baghi, or “armed rebellion against the state.” Washington has multiple tools to target the regime but is only using some of them. Recent sanctions have invoked Executive Order (EO) 13902 against shadow banking and oil smuggling, EO 13382, a counterproliferation authority against weapons procurement, EO 13224, a counterterrorism authority against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps support networks, and EO 13876 against the Supreme Leader’s affiliates. Yet EO 13553, the dedicated Iran human-rights authority, has sat unused since January 2026. The United States should also sanction the officials who suppress the only existential threat to the regime: its own people. The following 10 Revolutionary Court judges have already been sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom, and/or Canada for human rights violations — but not the United States: 1. Mohammad-Reza Tavakoli of Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union The two men publicly executed in Isfahan on July 28 were among 14 defendants sentenced to death by Tavakoli in a broader case involving 59 people. Two other defendants in the same case were executed on July 19. Tavakoli sentenced dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi to death for “corruption on earth” in April 2024, a decision that Iran’s Supreme Court subsequently overturned. In 2024, he sentenced 15 Baha’i women to five years each, totaling 75 years in prison, along with five-year deprivations of social rights and two-year travel bans, after treating Baha’i educational and religious activities as unlawful propaganda. In another mass proceeding, Tavakoli sentenced 22 political defendants to a combined 161 years in prison. Individual sentences reached 23 years, based on accusations including assembly and collusion, propaganda against the state, and membership in opposition groups. 2. Iman Afshari of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada Afshari sentenced at least 14 protest detainees to death in 2026 alone, including one protester given three death sentences. Many of these sentences were tied to moharebeh who were accused of supporting anti-regime groups and espionage. In 2025, he reimposed death sentences on six political prisoners. In 2024, he issued execution sentences for 10 Iranians. In 2023 and 2022, he issued four and two death sentences, respectively. In 2025, he sentenced four protesters to between 30 and 74 lashes each alongside prison terms for protesting. In 2024, he imposed combined sentences on eight political defendants totaling more than 42 years in prison, 25 years of exile, and 74 lashes on charges including assembly and collusion, propaganda, public disorder and property destruction. 3. Morteza Barati of Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada Barati sentenced three protesters to death by hanging; these proceedings relied on torture-tainted forced confessions and denied meaningful access to counsel. Authorities executed all three in 2023. Barati’s Branch 1 prosecuted dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi on the capital charge of efsad-e fel arz, or “corruption on Earth,” before sentencing him in 2023 to over six years in prison, a foreign-travel ban, and a prohibition on producing music or singing. In another case, Barati sentenced a 67-year-old Baha’i man to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges of organizing a group intended to undermine national security and propaganda against the state. 4. Seyed Hadi Mansouri of Branch 4 of the Mashhad Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada Mansouri presided over the trial of a 23-year-old protester charged with moharebeh. Tried just 10 days after his arrest, he was sentenced to death and publicly hanged only 23 days after his detention in December 2022. In 2020, Mansouri sentenced eight activists to a combined 72 years in prison, with individual terms of up to 26 years, internal exile and foreign travel bans, after they signed a public statement demanding the supreme leader’s resignation and a transition from the Islamic Republic. In 2023, Mansouri presided over Mashhad Revolutionary Court cases that imposed combined initial sentences of over 50 years on at least 11 Baha’i women for national security-, propaganda-, and assembly-and-collusion-related charges tied to their Baha’i activities. In 2020, Mansouri sentenced a lawyer to more than eight years for running a Telegram channel, accusing him of seeking to overthrow the state, insulting the supreme leader and propaganda against the state. 5. Musa Asif al-Hosseini of Branch 1 of the Karaj Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada Al-Hosseini presided over a mass trial of 16 protesters, including three 17-year-olds, sentencing five defendants to death and the other 11 up to 25 years in prison. The defendants were denied lawyers of their choosing, subjected to forced confession. Authorities later executed two of those sentenced to death. Al-Hosseini sentenced a woman arrested during the 2022 uprising to prison, internal exile, a travel ban and a social-media ban, and separately sentenced a journalist to prison on a charge of propaganda against the state. 6. Ahmad Darvish Goftar of Branch 1 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union and United Kingdom In 2025, he sentenced a poet and protest participant to death on charges of baghi and moharebeh. His branch also sentenced a political prisoner to death for baghi after authorities replaced an earlier propaganda charge with a more serious accusation; a woman to death over alleged cooperation with an opposition group; and another dissident to death for alleged opposition-group membership. He reimposed a death sentence on a political prisoner the following year. In 2024, he sentenced a labor activist to death on the charge of baghi based on alleged ties to an opposition group. 7. Mohammad Ali Darvish Goftar of Branch 2 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union Mohammad Ali Darvish Goftar, the son of Ahmad Darvish Goftar, reimposed two death sentences first issued by his father and later overturned by the Supreme Court. In February 2025, he resentenced a labor activist to death for alleged baghi. In May 2026, he resentenced a political prisoner to death on the same charge. He also sentenced a political prisoner to death in February 2025, a sentence that his father upheld. In April 2026, his branch also reimposed a death sentence for alleged baghi. In October 2025, it sentenced another activist to prison for “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the supreme leader.” 8. Mostafa Narimani of Branch 3 of the Karaj Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union The European Union designation states that Narimani’s court has imposed death sentences and lengthy prison sentences against religious minorities and dissidents based on vague national security charges. During the Persian calendar year of 1403 (March 2024-2025), Narimani sentenced eight defendants to a combined 35 years and 11 months in prison. In 2024, he sentenced a Christian convert to 10 years in prison and a two-year social-activity ban on charges of Christian evangelism, membership in groups opposed to the Islamic Republic, and cooperation with hostile governments. Narimani sentenced four political defendants detained during intensified repression around the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death to a combined roughly 15 years in prison and barred them from leaving Iran or using social media. Narimani also sentenced an imprisoned Baha’i man to an additional year in prison for publishing letters from detention, along with a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban on social media activity. 9. Mehdi Rasekhi of Branch 3 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union During the Persian calendar year 1403 (March 20, 2024-2025) Rasekhi sentenced 25 defendants to a combined 109 years and four months in prison. His branch sentenced 11 women’s-rights and civil-society activists from Gilan Province to a combined 60 years in prison on charges of forming or joining a group, assembly and collusion against national security and propaganda against the state. Rasekhi also participated with Ahmad Darvish-Goftar in issuing the death sentence against a labor activist charged with baghi. In another case, Rasekhi sentenced two Baha’i women to two years in prison each, fines and five years and one day of deprivation of social rights for educational and promotional activities associated with the Baha’i faith. He also sentenced a political defendant to 22 months for insulting the supreme leader and propaganda against the state. 10. Mohammad-Reza Amouzad of Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court Sanctioned by the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada Amoozad served as an advisory judge on the Branch 15 panel that sentenced dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam to death for “corruption on Earth.” Zam was executed in 2020 after being abducted in Iraq a year prior. The same Branch 15 panel imposed death sentences on three defendants arrested during the November 2019 protests. In 2023, Amoozad sentenced a protester to 11 years in prison [GW1] [JS2] on a moharebeh charge, and sentenced another political activist to six years in prison barred him from residing in Tehran for two years. He also sentenced three Baha’is to a combined 12 years and nine months in prison in 2021. He sentenced a 2022 protest defendant to death for moharebeh and issued another death sentence in 2025 for “corruption on Earth” based on alleged membership in opposition groups. Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.