US Supreme Court rules Iran bank’s US$2 billion must go to victims of 1983 Beirut bombing

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that almost US$2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.

The court’s 6-2 ruling dealt a setback to Iran’s central bank, finding that the US Congress did not usurp the authority of American courts by passing a 2012 law stating that the frozen funds should go toward satisfying a US$2.65 billion judgement won by the families against Iran in US federal court in 2007.

Bank Markazi had challenged a 2014 ruling by the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals that the assets, bonds held in a trust account overseen by former federal judge Stanley Sporkin, should be handed over to the more than 1,000 American plaintiffs.

With the legal questions resolved, lawyers for the plaintiffs said all that is left is for a federal judge to allow Sporkin to distribute the funds.

The lead plaintiff was Deborah Peterson, whose brother, Marine Lance Corporal James Knipple, died in the Beirut bombing. Peterson said for her the legal fight has never been about the just money.

“The mission was for those responsible for the bombing to be held accountable and for the world to understand what happened in Beirut,” Peterson said.