Iran fined $36m after case brought by torture victim detained as CIA operator
A US judge has ordered Iran to pay $36 million (Dh132.2m) to a US-Iran dual national who was whipped, beaten and threatened with rape during attempts to torture her into confessing membership of the CIA at the country’s notorious Evin jail.
Asfaneh Azadeh, a businesswoman based in the UAE, spent 114 days at the prison in 2012 and was on several occasions made to believe she was about to face a firing squad, according to US court papers.
The case – which was not contested by the Iranian government – followed about 100 US court judgments against Iran and its proxies for terrorism over the past 20 years, according to US lawyer Stuart Newberger, who has fought cases involving victims of state-sponsored violence.
The businesswoman, 49, was living in Dubai when she was arrested at Tehran’s international airport after travelling to meet her Iran-based fiance to finalise their wedding plans, according to court papers seen by The National.
She was taken to Evin prison, where she was accused of working for the CIA to foment anti-government activities. At least nine US-Iranian dual nationals have been detained and falsely accused of espionage in the past decade, Hadi Ghaemi, director of the US-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran, told the court.
Ms Azadeh was interrogated every day for six weeks, pushed down a flight of stairs and left with a dislocated shoulder. She was whipped by one jailer, who told her “he enjoyed seeing her suffer”, documents said. At one point she was falsely told that her mother, who lived in Iran, had died. Her fiance was also detained.
During the sustained period of torture, she was twice blindfolded, bundled into a car and put against a wall.
“She heard instructions being given to a firing squad to fire after which she heard several gun shots,” the court papers said. “The last thought she had was: ‘I am going to die and no one will know’.
“Her life flashing before her eyes, she lost consciousness and collapsed.”
She was released after signing a false confession about membership of the CIA but had to remain in Iran under the terms of her release.
A few weeks later, she was struck by a car that mounted a pavement in an episode that Iranian prosecutors hinted had been arranged, the documents said.
She split from her fiance because of her detention and later moved to the US.
She believes she was held because her employer, aviation cargo company HeavyLift International, had contracts with the US Department of Defence for troop support operations.
The company’s head, US Iranian aviation executive Farhad Azima, is locked in a legal battle with Ras Al Khaimah’s investment authority, Rakia, in the UK and US.
Iran’s status as an international pariah will mean that Ms Azadeh, 49, will be unable to enforce her claim for damages.
She is expected to lodge her claim with a US government-run fund that paid out $1.1 billion to victims of state sponsored terrorism last year but is likely to secure less than 10 per cent of the overall amount, according to analysts.
The fund is part-financed by penalties imposed on companies for breaking the sanctions regime targeting Iran. Last year, about 2,300 victims and families received up to $3m, according to State Department documents.
“There are probably more than 100 court judgments against Iran for terrorism. Some of them are very large cases arising from supporting Hezbollah and terrorism in Lebanon,” Mr Newberger said.