April 20, 2016 — New York, New York
AJC welcomed a United States Supreme Court decision today upholding the rights of Americans to seek compensation from Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism.
“The Supreme Court decision allows Congress to hold Iran accountable for the terrorism that it has perpetrated directly or via Hezbollah and other proxies,” said AJC CEO David Harris. “Survivors of Iranian terror, as well as families of victims, must have the ability to seek restitution. Although the method Congress chose was unusual, it was, as the Court observed, fully justified in the circumstances.”
More than 1,000 victims, or their families, of Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks had sued the Iranian government, seeking $1.75 billion in assets owned by Bank Markazi, the Central Bank of Iran, and held in a New York bank account. Among the victims were 241 U.S. Marines murdered in a 1983 attack in Beirut by the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah.
The Court, in Bank Markazi v. Peterson, No. 14-770, ruled, 6-2, that the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2012, enabled the plaintiffs to seek payments from Iranian assets in the U.S.
