MOSCOW, October 1 – Novosti. A US court has ordered Iran to pay $34.8 million to the family of Siamak Pourzand, a journalist and open government critic who allegedly committed suicide in 2011 while under house arrest in Tehran, Bloomberg reported.
“Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has awarded $17.4 million in damages and the same amount of punitive damages to the wife and daughters of Siamak Pourzand, who spent a decade in Iranian prisons and under house arrest despite petitions for fair treatment and release by international human rights organizations,” the agency said in a statement.
It is noted that the judge in his opinion held Iran responsible for hostage-taking and torture in accordance with the exclusion of terrorism from sovereign immunity in the US Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. At the same time, the judge did not find evidence that “Iran directly killed Pourzand.”
According to the agency, in 2002 Pourzand was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges, in particular, of espionage and incitement to commit acts of corruption and immorality. He allegedly committed suicide while under house arrest in 2011, but family members claimed he was actually killed by Iranian authorities.
