May 26, 2018
A judge in New York has issued a default judgement ordering Iran to pay more than $6 billion to victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.
That ruling drives the amount of money Iran has been ordered to pay “victims of terrorism” in the United States to more than $60 billion since 1996. Iran has never paid a penny.
The ruling finds “the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran” liable for the deaths of more than 1,000 people as a result of the September 11 attacks, Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District Court of New York wrote.
Iran was ordered to pay “$12,500,000 per spouse, $8,500,000 per parent, $8,500,000 per child, and $4,250,000 per sibling” to the families and estates of the deceased.
A 4.96 percent annual interest rate will also be applied, starting from September 11, 2001, to the date of the judgment.
A default judgement is issued when a defendant does not contest the case in court. Iran has never contested any of these terrorism cases and thus has lost them all. It argues that as a sovereign nation it is exempt from lawsuits.
Daniels issued other default judgements against Iran in 2011 and 2016 that ordered the Islamic Republic to pay victims and insurers billions of dollars for damages and deaths in the hijacker attacks.
Though the lawsuit alleged Iran supported the hijackers with training and other assistance, any Iranian involvement in the attacks remains unclear.
The 9/11 Commission, which was tasked with preparing a “full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding” the attacks, found no evidence of direct Iranian support, other than that some of the 9/11 hijackers traveled through Iran on their way to Afghanistan, without having their passports stamped.
The judgment against Iran was issued in a case consisting of more than 40 lawsuits that have been consolidated over the years.
Plaintiffs are also seeking billions of dollars in damages from Saudi Arabia.
