A building owned by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in Rotterdam has been seized after being sold nearly two years ago to a Dutch firm to partially settle a $2.6 billion debt owed to the UAE-based Crescent Gas Corporation (CGC).
Tehran-based Shargh newspaper reported that the building’s confiscation followed a Dutch court’s rejection of NIOC's request to annul the auction of its Rotterdam property, ruling in favor of the buyer, Dutch real estate company Heuvel Vastgoed B.V. The building, seized due to an arbitration ruling, had been sold on April 20, 2023.
Shargh's report said that NIOC had argued that the building, as a government-owned asset, should be immune from seizure. Heuvel, however, countered that the property was acquired legally through a public auction.
Ultimately, the court dismissed all of NIOC's appeals, including the request to reclaim the building, the report said.
NIOC's $2.6 billion debt to CGC stems from disputes over a 25-year gas supply agreement signed in 2001.
In April 2001, NIOC entered into a contract with UAE based Crescent Petroleum Company International Limited (CPCIL). However, in 2003, CPCIL assigned its rights and obligations under to its wholly-owned subsidiary, CGC.
The agreement required NIOC to deliver 600 million cubic feet of gas per day via pipeline.
The contract, finalized during the second term of Iran's president Mohammad Khatami, faced challenges after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration, elected in 2005, questioned the agreed price of $18 per 1,000 cubic meters, amounting to $98.5 million annually. As a result, the gas supply never commenced as planned.
This led to CGC to file a case against NIOC in 2009 with the international court of arbitration, and in 2010 the NIOC cancelled the contract. Iran then ignored a 2013 arbitration court ruling in The Hague that found the Iranian side liable. An international tribunal ruled in 2014 that the NIOC was in breach of its obligation to deliver gas since December 2005.
In September 2021, a tribunal ruled that NIOC must pay CGC approximately $2.43 billion in damages, plus interest. This award comprised $1.3 billion for CGC's lost profits and $1.1 billion for CGC's liability to its subsidiary, Crescent National Gas Corporation Limited (CNGC), for its lost profits.
The seizure of the Rotterdam building is not the first time Iranian assets have been confiscated over CGC-related debts. In April 2024, a British court ordered the confiscation of a £100 million ($125 million) property in central London owned by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Known as NIOC House, the building was located near the British Parliament and Westminster Abbey and had been in Iranian ownership for nearly 50 years.
"They were rewarded by God through their martyrdom at the hands of the enemies of God," Khamenei told the families of the two judges after leading their funeral prayers.
Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini had decades-long histories of handing down death sentences and lengthy prison terms to dissidents in numerous cases.
The cases handled by the two judges, both of the clerics, involved political dissidents, activists, followers of the Baha’i faith, dissident clerics, and those accused of security-related "crimes."
However, Khamenei said after his prayers that "Razini and Moghiseh accomplished great deeds throughout their lives, which made them deserving of this reward from God.”
On Saturday, a 31-year-old janitor entered the first floor of the Branch 39 of Iran's Supreme Court, pulled a firearm from under his clothing, and opened fire on Ali Razini, Mohammad Moghiseh, and a security officer, the Iranian government's newspaper Iran reported.
"After targeting the three individuals, he left the courtroom with the same weapon, fled to the third floor, and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart," the report added.
Iran's former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told the state TV the assailant was looking for a third judge on the third floor, but the judge was not in the building at the time.
Based on investigations, the janitor's presence in the courtroom until his departure from the room took only 13 seconds, the newspaper's report said.
It did not specify the type of weapon used in the rare deadly shooting but mentioned that six shots were fired in rapid succession. Other reports in local media mentioned that a semi-automatic handgun was used.
The Iran newspaper also noted that investigations revealed the young janitor had no prior disputes with the judges, but his motive remains unclear.
In his interview with the state TV, Pourmohammadi said the janitor mentioned the MEK exiled opposition group, indicating that it was a targeted, preplanned attempt to seek revenge against the judges who were allegedly involved in the mass executions of prisoners, mainly MEK supporters, in the 1980s.
The Islamic government has identified the attacker as a janitor, but this has raised questions about how a janitor could have obtained a firearm, smuggled it into a heavily guarded court building, and demonstrated the skill and speed required to carry out such a precise attack.