Terry Anderson files $100 million suit against Iran for backing Hizbullah
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, February 16, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Terry Anderson, the longest-held American hostage in
Lebanon, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Iranian government.
Anderson, 52, a journalist, has charged Iran with funding and directing
the Beirut-based Hizbullah guerrillas who kept him prisoner for nearly seven
years, from March 16, 1985 to Dec. 4, 1991. He was held longer than any
other American in Lebanon.
Anderson was bound and blindfolded for the duration of his captivity.
His lawsuit asserts that his captors were Hizbullah members, or Party of
God, "a politico-paramilitary terrorist organization operating in Lebanon"
sponsored and directed by Iran.
Anderson, his wife Madeleine Bassil, and their daughter Sulome testified
before United States District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on Tuesday on
how the hostage ordeal affected their lives.
The hearing will continue Wednesday. Testimony on the role of overseas
journalists will be heard.
Last March, Congress enacted a bill under a 1996 law allowing claims by
U.S. citizens and their families against assets of foreign countries that
sponsor terrorism - if the actions resulted in personal injury or death --
to collect on such judgements.
But so far, no money has been collected under that act. That's because
the Clinton administration, while initially supporting the law, has declined
to help successful U.S. plaintiffs collect.
Anderson said he hopes that may soon change.
"The Clinton administration is supposed to assist in finding Iranian
assets," he said. "In general, they've said they're willing to do this. But
there's still a ways to go."
Anderson's case follows several other cases.
In August 1998 a U.S. federal court ordered Iran to pay $65 million in
damages to fellow American hostages David Jacobsen, Joseph Cicippio and
Frank Reed, and the wives of Cicippio and Reed. None of the plaintiffs
received any money.
The families of four men who were killed in 1996 when Cuban military jets
shot down two unarmed civilian planes have also claimed damages under the
act but so far received nothing.
Others who have filed under the act include the family of Alisa Flatow,
20, of West Orange, N.J., a student at a seminary in Jerusalem. She was
killed April 9, 1995 in an attack on a bus in the Gaza Strip. Seven Israeli
soldiers also died in the attack for which Islamic Jihad claimed
responsibility.
The United States froze Iranian assets valued at $12 billion in 1979.
Most of the funds, however, are controlled by the Iran-United States Claims
Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which decides claims against both Iran
and the United States. The United States itself has jurisdiction over only a
small fraction of the assets, mostly real estate.
Wednesday, February 16, 2000
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