April 26, 2023
Tehran, Iran – An Iranian
court has ruled the United States government and a number of individuals and
entities, including former President Barack Obama, must pay compensation for
2017 attacks carried out by the armed group ISIL (ISIS).
The court in the capital
issued the verdict on Wednesday based on complaints by families of three people
killed and six wounded during the June 2017 attacks in Tehran, according to the
official news website of the judiciary.
The building of the Iranian
parliament and the mausoleum of the founder of Iran’s current establishment,
Ruhollah Khomeini, were targeted during the daylight assault that killed 17
people in total.
The court ruled $9.95m
needs to be paid to compensate for financial damages while $104m and $199m are
for moral and punitive damages, respectively, with the total nearing $313m.
Those convicted in the case
include the US government, Obama, former President George W Bush, Central
Command (CENTCOM), and its former commander Tommy Franks, the Central
Intelligence Agency, the Treasury Department, weapons manufacturer Lockheed
Martin, and American Airlines Group.
None of the named entities
or individuals is believed to hold any assets under Iranian control that could
be seized, and the court did not say how the compensation order would be
carried out.
As to why the US is being
blamed for the attacks, the website cited comments by American officials about
the “fundamental” role played by the US in “organising and guiding terrorist
groups”, news and information published by US media, and books and speeches by
US officials discussing “the CIA’s role in creating terrorist groups”,
including ISIL.
The judiciary also
acknowledged the ruling comes as a response to numerous orders by US courts
over the years that have blamed Iran for “terrorist” assaults, and ordered
compensation paid from seized Iranian assets.
“As this marks a violation
of the immunity of the Iranian government, Iranian courts have also judged a
variety of cases against the US government and officials, and have issued legal
decisions and will continue to do so,” it said.
Iran says senior cleric on Assembly of Experts shot dead
April 26, 2023
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior Shiite cleric in Iran
was shot and killed Wednesday in an attack in a northern province along the
Caspian Sea, authorities said.
An attacker shot to death Ayatollah Abbas Ali
Soleimani in Babolsar in Iran's Mazandaran province, state television reported.
Police later arrested the attacker, state TV said.
Confusion persisted hours after the attack. Soleimani
had been at a bank in the city when another man seized a guard's firearm and
began shooting over a personal dispute with an employee, striking and killing
the cleric, state TV initially said. State TV later said it was the guard
himself who opened fire.
The discrepant accounts could not be immediately
reconciled. The Interior Ministry announced it would launch a special
investigation into the cleric's slaying.
Soleimani, 78, served on the Assembly of Experts, an
88-seat panel that oversees and appoints Iran's supreme leader. He also once
was the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Iran's
restive Sistan and Baluchestan province.
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