May 13, 2016
Amir Hekmati has filed suit in a US court against the Islamic Republic for torturing him during his time in captivity.
Hekmati is suing under the “victims of terrorism” law enacted in 1996 that allows American citizens injured by Iranian actions to sue and seize any Iranian government assets they can find in the United States.
The lawsuit, filed with the US District Court in Washington, DC, seeks unspecified economic, compensatory and punitive damages from Iran.
It says Hekmati was subject to beatings, sleep deprivation, forced drugging and psychological abuse during his imprisonment from the summer of 2011 until last January, when he was freed in a prisoner exchange.
During his lengthy ordeal, Hekmati was “whipped at the bottom of his feet, struck by an electrical Taser to his kidney area, forced to stay in stress positions for hours at a time, and hit with batons,” the lawsuit states.
Aside from physical abuse, prison guards threw water on Hekmati’s cell floor to prevent him sleeping, kept the light on and forced him to take lithium and other “addictive pills,” only to stop these to trigger withdrawals, the lawsuit states.
He is likely to have an easy time winning the suit, but may have trouble finding any assets to seize.
