French Court freezes Iranian bank accounts

Alexander Ritzmann

Die Welt

Please scroll down for the article in German / Bitte nach unten scrollen für die deutsche Fassung.

Iran supports various Islamist terror groups but has never paid compensation to the victims. A French court has now frozen Iranian bank accounts, giving hope to terror victims that they can be compensated. German victims will be hoping too.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is regarded worldwide as one of the key sponsors of Islamist terrorism. Law suits in the United States have repeatedly ordered Iran to pay compensations to terror victims or their families. However, Iran has continuously denied any responsibility and has never compensated any victims of terrorist acts.

Yet, a French court has now frozen bank accounts of the Iranian central bank in order to pay compensations for Iran’s terror victims. Germany has its own experiences with Iranian terrorism and has also never been compensated for such acts. The decisions in France nourishes the hope that Germany’s terror victims will be able to receive Iranian money in the future.

In one of the worst terror attacks before September 11, suicide bombers of the Lebanese Hezbollah drove in 1983 two trucks loaded with explosives into the building of the UN troops in Lebanon. 241 American and 58 French soldier were killed.

In 2003, the US Federal court found Tehran guilty of providing financial and logistical help to Hezbollah in order to carry out the attack. Iran was convicted of paying US$2.65 billion. Imad Mughniyah, killed two weeks ago in a explosion in Damascus, was accused of being the main person responsible behind the attack. The Iranian leadership is glorifying Mughniyah as a martyr and wants to dedicate a postage stamp to him.

Iranian money has left the United States

Currently, French courts are establishing whether victims of terror organisations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which are also financially supported by Iran, can have access to the funds in Iranian bank accounts in France. In April 1995, the 32 year old Seth Ben Haim was travelling with a bus in Gaza when it was hit by a explosive-loaded truck. Eight people were killed. Ben Haim belonged to the 52 heavily injured victims which survived the horrific attack. On September, 4th 1997 the 26 year old Jenny Rubin became victim of a suicide attack of Hamas in Jerusalem. Four people lost their lives and over 100 were injured, among them Jenny Rubin.

Jenny Rubin, Ben Haim and ten other victims sued Iran before a US court and were awarded US$87.5 million in compensation. However, nothing could be seized because Iran does not invest money in the United States. The suitors therefore went to France. A French judge accepted the American verdicts as a legal basis and ordered in December last year the freezing of US$117 million of the Iranian Central Bank.

Future law suits around the world

The Iranian Central Bank appealed to the French court and forced it to verify whether it is allowed to freeze accounts of the Iranian central bank. The representative of the French office of public prosecutors, who usually acts on the instructions of the French governments, appeared suddenly and argued in favour of the Iranian position. This seems to be in contradiction with the Iranian policy of French president Sarkozy. To what extent the judge will be following his argument remains to be seen. On March, 10th his decision will be announced.

In Germany, the Iranian regime has carried out one terrorist attack. In September 1992, four exiled Kurdish-Iranian politicians met in the Berlin restaurant Mykonos and were brutally gunned-down by members of the Iranian secret service VEVAK and Hezbollah. The superior court of justice in Berlin determined that "the Iranian political leadership is responsible for the attack", including the then acting president Hashemi Rafsanjani as well as the supreme leaders Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Neither the family of the translator and adviser Nurallah Mohmadpour Dehkordi, who live in Germany, nor the injured bar owner or other guest have received any compensation from Iran. Another incident purportedly connected to Iran was met with the same outcome. In the 1980s, Hezbollah kidnapped Germans Rudolf Cordes, Alfred Schmidt, Heinrich Strübig and Thomas Kemptner, and none of these men have received any compensation.

If the victims of Iran’s state terrorism succeed with their lawsuit in France, future lawsuits around the world are more likely. In total, US courts have awarded around US$3 billion to the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism. Potentially, this money can be recovered in Germany as well. The regime in Tehran would have to calculate its sponsoring of terrorism anew: It would have to pay not only for the murders but also for the victims.