Victory in Court: Iran to pay $9 Million to Israeli Terror Victims

US federal court awarded families of victims to a 1997 Jerusalem terror attack, $9 million from frozen Iranian assets, in a ‘Chanukah miracle’ verdict.

By Ari Yashar

 

On Wednesday an unprecedented US court victory awarded $9 million in frozen Iranian assets to the families of 5 terror victims murdered in a triple suicide bombing in Jerusalem back in 1997.

The bombings, which took place in the capital’s busy Ben Yehuda street, was carried out by Hamas. Among the 5 murdered were three 14 year old girls.

Shurat HaDin (Israeli Law Center) began the petition in 2001 against Iran, which it claimed provided material and financial support to Hamas in conducting the attack.

Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder of Shurat HaDin, lauded the precedent setting court victory, particularly in light of the easing sanctions on Iran that may have released as much as $8 billion in blocked assets.

Darshan-Leitner noted that “at a time when the US and the EU are hurrying to strengthen the criminal Iranian regime, Shurat HaDin and the families it represents do not forget or forgive the Iranians for funding terror that struck Israel. As long as we remember the horrific murderers of the Iranian proxy Hamas in 1997, we will continue fighting (for justice)…every day.”

The victory over the Iranian Ministry of Defense came in a San Diego federal court following ten years of litigation, in what some are calling a “Hanukkah miracle.”

In 2003, after a Washington court ruled in the victims’ favor to the tune of $7 million, the families petitioned the freezing the assets of “Cubic Defense System” in San Diego for its financial collaboration with the Iranian regime.

Eventually the US Ministry of Justice got involved, and the victims’ families finally won their case.

The families will have to wait for the Iranian Defense Ministry to exercise its right to appeal, but the judge has already ordered the monetary transfer in their names.

Iran has been found to be the leading state sponsor of terror, and in 2012 the Islamic regime boosted its support of terror to previously unseen levels.

 

View original Arutz Sheva publication at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174796#.Up8i9uLeqlh