Iran has officially protested a US court ruling against the country for allegedly aiding in the 2001 terror attacks in the United States, a senior official said on Monday, calling the preposterous verdict a "mockery" of international law. Earlier in May, a federal judge in New York ordered Iran to pay billions of dollars to parents, spouses, siblings and children of more than 1,000 victims of the September 11 attacks whose families sued, ABC News reported, citing court filings.
"The issuance of such illegal verdicts is a flagrant violation of international law, commitments and accepted norms that demand respect for legal immunity of governments," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in a statement carried by ISNA.
He said the matter has been pursued through official channels, including through the Swiss Embassy, which represents US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington. The lawsuit was first filed in 2004 and allowed to go forward in 2016 after the US Congress passed Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act to open sovereign states accused of terrorism to liability. It alleged that Iran provided assistance, including training, to the hijackers who carried out the attacks—which killed almost 3,000 people—even though the 9/11 commission found no direct evidence of Iranian support. Iran denies backing terrorism. The judge set Iranian payouts of $12.5 million per spouse of each victim, $8.5 million per parent, $8.5 million per child and $4.25 million per sibling. The order makes the families eligible to collect from a fund of seized Iranian assets.
There has been no evidence of Iran's involvement in the attacks and even official US reports have acknowledged that their perpetrators were linked to a "regional ally" of Washington, Qassemi said, referring to the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. The others were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon. He added that the ruling not only made a mockery of the international legal system but also the American people.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always strongly condemned the issuance of biased, politically-motivated and baseless verdicts and those issued in absentia by US legal authorities and has rejected extra-territorial and unlawful rulings."
The Foreign Ministry official said the Iranian government reserves the right to follow up the issue.
