Canadian court sues Iran to pay for victims of terrorism

Canadian court sues Iran to pay for victims of terrorism

A Canadian judge has ordered Iran’s land and bank accounts in Canada to be handed over to victims of attacks by Hezbollah, sponsored by the Iranian regime.

The judgment awards a reported $13 million to families of Americans who died in eight bombings or hostage-takings in Buenos Aires, Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 2002. Hundreds died in the attacks.

The families, led by the parents of Marla Bennett, who was killed when a suicide bomber struck at a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Israel in 2002, had successfully sued the Iranian regime in the United States, the AFP wrote.

The US court found that Iran’s regime was responsible for training Hamas and Hezbollah operatives, as well as backing the groups financially.

But those judgments remain largely unpaid.

“Terrorism is one of the world’s greatest threats,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey said in his decision.

“The broad issue before the court is whether Iran is entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of Canadian courts for its support of terrorism.”

The Canadian lawsuits were brought under a relatively new law passed in 2012 that allows victims and their families to collect damages from state sponsors of terrorism. The law is known as the Justice for Victims of Terror Act.

Canada lists the Iranian regime as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Protest in Canada against Iran

Iranian Resistance in Canada staged demonstrations on Saturday, June 4 in the center of Toronto as well as in front of the federal parliament in Ottawa to protest the rising tide of executions and the grave human rights violations in Iran.

The participants announced their solidarity with political prisoners in the Iranian regime’s dungeons and called for condemnation of the mullahs’ inhuman regime by the international community and the United Nations.

Iran’s fundamentalist regime has publicly hanged at least 118 people since April 10. Three of those executed were women and two are believed to have been juvenile offenders.

Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 2015 period wrote: “Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before.”

“Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded” in the Middle East and North Africa, the human rights group said.

There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as President.