December 06-2013
A US court has ordered an American defense contractor who earlier lost a suit with Iran to pay the funds won by Iran to five American “victims of terrorism” instead.
The case is believed to be only the second in which American victims of terrorism have succeeded in finding any Iranian assets that they were able to tap.
Five Americans were killed in a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem. In 2003, the DC federal court ruled that the Islamic Republic had backed the bombing and awarded the families of the five $70 million. As with dozens of other “victims of terrorism,” they have been unable to find any Iranian assets they could seize to in fulfillment of the court decision.
But a November 27 ruling in the federal court for the Southern District of California gives the victims $9 million that a previous court decision had directed a US defense contractor, Cubic Defense Systems Inc., to pay Iran.
The Islamic Republic and the US Justice Department joined hands in court to oppose the payment to the families.
The motion by the 10 claimants — Jenny Rubin, Deborah Rubin, Daniel Miller, Abraham Mendelson, Stuart E. Hersh, Renay Frym, Noam Rozenman, Elana Rozenman, Tzvi Rozenman, and France M. Rafii — sought to collect “judgments against the Islamic Republic of Iran for personal injuries arising out of the country’s terrorist activities.”
The Iranian Ministry of Defense argued that the collection effort was a violation of its sovereign immunity as well the Algiers Accords, which ended the 1979-81 hostage episode and provided for the release of Iranian assets the United States had frozen in the United States after the hostages were seized.
The US Department of Justice also filed a brief that did not support the Iranian legal arguments, but instead reasoned that the Iranian government was not liable for the Cubic Defense Systems assets.
US District Judge Barry Moskowitz said in his decision last month, “Having carefully considered the arguments of counsel and the governing law, the court holds that lien claimants are entitled to the relief they seek.”
Appeals are pending before the victims can access the money. However, Iran cannot access the money during the legal process.
Cubic had a military contract with Iran before the revolution. After the revolution, the Islamic Republic sued Cubic to get back money Iran had paid Cubic for services that were halted by the revolution. Cubic and Iran fought that issue in the US courts for years until Cubic lost all its appeals and was ordered to pay Iran $9 million.
This is believed to be only the second case in which Americans who had won “victims of terrorism” suits were able to find and seize Iranian assets. The first case was decided in February. The sum of money involved there was less than $360,000, however, or barely one-tenth of 1 percent of the $337 million awarded the families of 17 US servicemen killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. The funds seized were small bank accounts in the New York branch of the Bank of Tokyo belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and three Iranian banks.
