A US federal judge has found Iran liable and awarded $841 million in damages to 36 plaintiffs whose family members had been wounded or killed in attacks by militant groups in Iraq’s Anbar province, their co-counsel said on Monday.
Iran provided significant material support for “terrorists” who carried out attacks in Iraq between 2003 and 2017, District Judge Randolph Moss of the District of Columbia said in a 12-page memorandum opinion.
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and promptly faced a deadly insurgency.
Moss awarded about $420.7 million in compensatory damages and $420.7 million in punitive damages to the plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs generally rely on the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund for compensation as it is “very difficult” to collect judgments from Iran, their co-counsel Nicholas Reddick said.
“Pretty much all of Iran’s assets have already been seized by the government or prior litigants, so there isn’t just money sitting around in a bank account that we can go seize.”
Foreign governments are generally considered beyond the jurisdiction of US courts, but the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) allows the courts to hold these countries accountable, where immunity is not absolute.
In 2016, Iran filed a lawsuit against the United States before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, for allegedly breaching a 1955 friendship treaty by allowing US courts to freeze assets of Iranian companies. The money was to be given in compensation to victims of terrorist attacks.
In 2023, the ICJ judges ruled Washington had illegally allowed courts to freeze assets of some Iranian companies and ordered the United States to pay compensation but left the amount to be determined later.
However, in a blow for Tehran, the world court said it did not have jurisdiction over $1.75 billion in frozen assets from Iran's central bank.
