A provincial judge in Ontario has issued an order freezing three Iranian properties in the province. That means they cannot be sold or transferred until the court can decide whether they should be forfeited to the American family to help satisfy a US court award.
The case centers on Marla Bennett of San Diego. She was killed in 2002 in a bomb attack on the Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem, where she was a graduate student in Judaic studies. She was 24.
A US court declared Hamas responsible for the attack. Hamas is classified as a terrorist group in both Canada and the US.
“It is undisputed that members of Hamas committed this extrajudicial killing of Marla Bennett, and indeed took credit for it,” ruled US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in 2007.
Judge Lamberth further ruled: “Iran has continuously provided material support to and sponsorship of Hamas and its members so that they may undertake terrorist attacks like the one in this action.”
The US judge ordered Iran to pay Bennett’s parents and sister $12,904,548. They have not been able to find any Iranian assets they can seize in the United States. The old Iranian embassy and 10 other properties owned across the United States by the Iranian state have been protected by the US government, under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, which have argued that diplomatic properties cannot be seized.
The United Stats is very firm on that point in part because allowing the seizure of Iranian diplomatic properties in the United States might appear to justify the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.
The Canadian government may eventually oppose the seizure of the embassy building in Ottawa. As of now, the frozen Iranian properties have not been handed over to the family. The judge has merely frozen them so that she can hear pro and con arguments on whether to allow the family to take custody. The Canadian government has yet to weigh in.
Some Canadians expressed surprise and anger that a Canadian judge would even consider enforcing a US court judgment in Canada. But that is actually routine. Canadian courts regularly enforce US court judgments and US courts regularly enforce Canadian judgments. This is standard reciprocity.
The properties at issue are:
• An empty, four-story building in Ottawa that housed Iran’s embassy until it was ordered closed in September by the Canadian government;
• A one-story structure in Toronto that once served as the Centre for Iranian Studies but is currently available for lease; and
• An industrial building in Ottawa, near the University of Ottawa, operated as the Iranian Cultural Centre.
The court heard that the properties, other than the embassy, were not officially listed as Iranian government property.
The Toronto property is held by Farhangeiran Inc., the president of which is Fazel Larijani. Once Iran’s cultural attaché in Canada, he is a brother of Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chairman Sadeq Larijani. The building is currently being advertised for rent at C$3,590 a month.
The industrial property in Ottawa is legally owned by the Mobin Foundation. When it was renovated after purchase in 1998, the applicant named on the building permit was “Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Professor Farrokh Zandi, an economics professor at York University in Ontario and president of the Iranian-Canadian Congress, told the court, “Iran uses cultural centers to cloak the involvement of the Iranian government and government officials in promoting Iranian interests.”
No representative of Iran appeared at the hearing or offered submissions.
The ownership, Judge Allen said, can be challenged when the full motion on the seizure of the properties is heard. No date has yet been set for that hearing.
In Tehran, the Foreign Ministry gave one of its standard responses, arguing that things that happen close together in time must therefore be linked substantively. Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said, “The fact that the Canadian courts targeted the Iranian people’s properties immediately after the suspension of diplomatic relations and the closure of Iran’s embassy in Canada clarifies the motives of the Canadian government.”
Mehman-Parast treated the court’s action as if it were done at the order of the Canadian government. He also treated the freeze order as if it were permanent and not just a holding action until a full hearing on the merits could be held.