Islamic Republic's parliament toughens penalties for "cooperation with a foreign agent"

The Islamic Republic's parliament on Sunday 25 October 2026 approved an article under which the penalty for all discretionary (ta'zir) crimes committed under the "support, supervision, direction, training or guidance" of a "foreign agent" is raised by one degree. The article is part of a bill that lawmakers call "countering infiltration" by foreign intelligence services and governments, and that critics consider the broadest legal tool for suppressing dialogue and civic activity since the Dey uprising.

Discretionary penalties in the Islamic Penal Code have eight degrees, with degree one the harshest; raising them by one degree means that any charge the security apparatus can link to a "foreign agent" moves into the next, harsher penalty band. The full text of the approved article has not yet been published.

Criminalising conversations with free media

On 6 October, parliament had already approved Article 22 of the same bill by 174 votes in favour, 6 against and 2 abstentions. That article criminalises Iranians speaking to or cooperating with media that the Intelligence Ministry labels "hostile", and provides for more than six months to two years in prison, fines, 31 to 74 lashes and deprivation of social rights; regime officials are exempt from the ban. Article 20 also makes it a crime to give unpublished official information, reports or statistics to a "foreign agent".

The bill classifies foreign governments in two tiers: governments designated "hostile" by law or by a decision of the Supreme National Security Council, and governments that, according to the bill, have planned or acted to harm Iran's political, defence, security, economic or cultural interests. The list is drawn up by the Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC Intelligence Organisation and approved by the Supreme National Security Council.

Government opposition and the path to approval

The outline of the bill was approved on 16 August with 183 votes in favour, and Masoud Pezeshkian's government formally opposed it on 22 August, saying the bill has "serious flaws". First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned of its consequences for science and technology, and Majid Ansari, the president's deputy for legal affairs, said its broad and vague criminal definitions harm citizens' rights.

The bill is not yet law: review of its other articles continues, after which it goes to the Guardian Council, and in case of disagreement the Expediency Council takes the final decision. The Islamic Republic has executed dozens of people on espionage charges in recent months; a former Mossad chief recently said that some of those executed had no connection with the agency, a sign of how far the label of "cooperation with foreigners" is used for repression.

With harsher penalties for "cooperation with a foreign agent", any conversation with free media or any civic activity can lead to a heavier sentence.