Luxembourg Court Rejects US Claim on Iran Assets

A Luxembourg court rejected a US request to compensate victims of the Twin Tower attacks by seizing assets from Iran.

The Luxembourg court said that the rule the US court used to repeal the immunity of the defendants, namely the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Central Bank of Iran, is not compatible with international law, Luxembourg Times reported.

In March 2017, the New York Times ran a story announcing that a judge in Luxembourg has quietly frozen assets worth $1.6 billion belonging to Iran’s central bank.

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It also said that the US judgement cannot be enforced abroad because the Iranian defendants had not been made aware of all the elements of the lawsuit and the reasons for the decision at the American court.

As a result, the plaintiffs cannot enforce the US decisions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Central Bank - for instance by seizing bank deposits - in Luxembourg, the court said.