TEHRAN: A Tehran court has ruled that the United States government must pay nearly $50 billion in damages for the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, according to an announcement by the judiciary on Wednesday.
The verdict comes almost four years after then-US President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike near Baghdad airport, resulting in the death of General Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020.
The Tehran court’s decision includes a compensation amount of $49.7 billion for “material, moral, and punitive damages.” The lawsuit was filed by more than 3,300 Iranians. The court found 42 individuals and legal entities guilty, including Trump, the US government, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, as reported by Mizan Online, the Iranian judiciary’s news agency.
General Qasem Soleimani led the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and was considered one of Iran’s most prominent public figures. His assassination by a US drone strike prompted tensions between the two nations, with Iran retaliating by launching missiles at bases in Iraq housing American and coalition troops.
Iran’s Courts Rulings Against US
This ruling follows several compensation orders against the United States by Iranian courts. In a recent case, an Iranian court ordered the US government to pay $420 million in compensation to victims of a failed 1980 operation aimed at freeing hostages held at the US embassy. Additionally, in August, a Tehran court demanded $330 million in damages, accusing the US of planning a coup in 1980 against the Islamic republic.
These legal actions mirror a series of multi-billion-dollar compensation rulings against Tehran by US courts. In 2016, the US Supreme Court directed frozen Iranian assets in the United States to be paid to victims of attacks attributed to Tehran.
Despite ongoing legal disputes, Iran has appealed to international justice to release frozen funds belonging to Iranian individuals and companies. In March, the International Court of Justice deemed Washington’s freezing of funds “manifestly unreasonable” but lacked jurisdiction to unblock nearly $2 billion in Iranian central bank assets frozen by the United States.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States have been nonexistent since the aftermath of the 1979 revolution.
