Iran ordered to pay $466 million
Iran must pay $466 million to the family of a Los Angeles man and former Iranian Air Force officer who was tortured and executed there a decade ago for allegedly spying, a federal court has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ruled Dec. 28 that the family of Siavash Bayani was entitled to the money.
The judge in Washington, D.C., found that the lawsuit met a “terrorist exception” to the law because the United States has designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The family won by default because Iran ignored the legal action and presented no defense.
Bayani sought asylum in the U.S. in 1984 after the Revolutionary Guard Corps began purging military officers who served under the shah.
Bayani returned to Iran in 1995 to care for his terminally ill mother and was arrested five months later. He was tortured in prison and hanged after a trial, the lawsuit said.
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