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Anti-Iran Ruling Undermines US Judiciary’s Credibility

Anti-Iran Ruling Undermines US Judiciary’s Credibility
Anti-Iran Ruling Undermines US Judiciary’s Credibility

The recent ruling issued by a US court requiring Iran to pay damages for the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is “ridiculous” and has dealt another blow to the credibility of the US judiciary, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.

“This verdict is ridiculous and meaningless, and not only mocks justice but further hurts the credibility of the US judicial system,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Monday.

Based on the ruling, Iran is to pay more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed in New York attacks and to a group of insurers, Bloomberg reported.

The default judgment issued by US District Judge George Daniels in New York last week orders that $7.5 billion be paid to the estates and families of people who died at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, two of the buildings hit by the attacks.  It includes $2 million to each estate for the victims’ pain and suffering plus $6.88 million in punitive damages.

Daniels also awarded $3 billion to insurers, including Chubb Ltd. that paid property damages, business interruption and other claims. Earlier in the case, Daniels found that Iran had failed to defend claims that it aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and was therefore liable for damages tied to the attacks.

Daniels’s ruling adopts damages findings by a US magistrate judge in December.

With Iran rejecting the verdict as unjust and therefore being reluctant to pay, the plaintiffs may try to collect part of the judgments by tapping Tehran’s frozen assets overseas.

  Iranophobia Scenario

Ansari said Iran considers the US administration an accomplice in the move, which is part of “Iranophobia Scenario” plotted by Israel.

“Such judgments send a very dangerous and meaningful message to terrorists and their backers that you may rest assured that you can continue killing people in the US and the world because you will not be stopped and instead one of your strongest and most formidable enemies is being targeted for your crimes,” he said.   

“Although apparently these unfair rulings only affect the Iranian government and nation, a closer look shows that it is in fact the US people, particularly the survivors of the Sept. 11 incident, whose rights are violated by such diversionary decisions … that fail to bring to justice the real criminals behind the attacks.”

The September 11 incident involved a series of coordinated suicide attacks, in which four passenger airlines were hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists to attack symbolic US landmark buildings.

Of the 19 terrorists involved in the attacks, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, while the others were from the UAE (2), Egypt and Lebanon.

 

Financialtribune.com