The judiciary in Tehran has announced on Saturday, August 26, that a court has ordered the U.S. government to compensate $330 million in damages for alleged involvement in “planning a coup” against the newly formed Islamic republic back in 1980.
A court in Tehran has ordered the US government to pay $330 million in damages for “planning a coup” against the newly established Islamic republic in 1980, the judiciary said Saturday.
A year after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, a group of mostly army officers tried to overthrow the new government.
Last year, relatives of those killed in the coup filed a legal petition with Iran’s International Court demanding damages, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.
They specifically accused the United States of “planning and executing” the coup, Mizan said.
The court ruled in their favour, ordering “the American government to pay the plaintiffs 30 million dollars in material and moral damages, and 300 million dollars in punitive damages,” it added.
Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since the aftermath of the 1979 revolution.
In 1953, the British and US intelligence services orchestrated the overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh who had nationalised Iran’s lucrative oil industry.
In 2016, the US Supreme Court ordered that Iranian assets frozen in the United States should be paid to victims of attacks Washington has blamed on Tehran, including the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut and a 1996 blast in Saudi Arabia.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
