Americans look north for Iranian assets
Ottawa’s move to cut diplomatic relations opens door to lawsuits in Canada
OTTAWA — In designating Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, the Harper government has paved the way for Canadians to launch lawsuits against the Islamic Republic.
But the first to take advantage of the change may actually be several Americans who have successfully sued Iran for millions of dollars in U. S. court — and are now looking north of the border to collect.
David Jacobsen and Alarm Steen were among dozens of foreigners, including 18 U. S. citizens, kidnapped and held hostage during Lebanon’s brutal civil war in the 1980s.
Jacobsen was director of Beirut’s American University Hospital when he was kidnapped while walking to work on May 28, 1985.
Court documents paint a picture of his subsequent 18- month detention, describing how he was chained to the floor in dark, airless and damp basements wearing only his underwear and a T- shirt, and how he was often beaten or forced to eat food his captors had spat in.
Steen was among four Western professors at Beirut’s University College kidnapped on Jan. 24, 1987.
He was particularly badly treated by his captors during his nearly five horrific years in captivity as they believed he was a member of the CIA because of his past service as a U. S. Marine.
Chained to a wall by the wrists and provided meagre food and clothing, Steen was repeatedly beaten and at one point suffered a head injury that was not properly treated and has since left him suffering from seizures.
At one point, Steen attempted to escape through a window, but the taxi cab he hailed on the street to take him to the airport returned him to his captors, who subsequently beat him and moved him to a new location.
In both instances, the men’s kidnappers are believed to have been members of Hezbollah, an Islamic militant
The state immunity impediment has now been removed and it allows us a direct route to domesticate in Canada the U. S. court decisions and to move forward on the issue of finding Iranian assets in Canada.
MARK ARNOLD LAWYER FOR TWO U. S. PLAINTIFFS
group that has close ties to the Iranian government and is a designated terrorist organization in many countries, including Canada.
Court documents say Iran was nearly bankrupt in the early 1980s and needed weapons to continue its war with Iraq, so it directed Hezbollah to carry out the kidnappings and hold them ransom until the U. S. transferred money, assets and weapons to Iran.
After returning home, both men and their families successfully sued Iran in U. S. court, with the Islamic Republic, the country’s ministry of information and security, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard ordered to pay millions in damages.
But while Jacobsen was given $ 9 million in Iranian assets in the U. S., his children have been unable to collect the $ 6.4 million they were awarded in a later judgment because all Iranian assets were either depleted or frozen by presidential decree.
Similarly, Steen and his wife have been unable to collect the $ 342 million awarded to them in 2003.
That’s when they set their eyes on Canada.
The two families have hired Toronto lawyer Mark Arnold to get a Canadian court to recognize their U. S. court decisions so they can search for available Iranian assets in Canada.
In November 2011, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled the Steen and Jacobsen families could not move ahead with their case in Canada primarily because Iran still had immunity and so couldn’t be sued in this country.
But Arnold said the Harper government’s designation of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism paves the way for a new claim that should be successful because Iran will no longer have immunity.
“The state immunity impediment has now been removed and it allows us a direct route to domesticate in Canada the U. S. court decisions and to move forward on the issue of finding Iranian assets in Canada,” he said.
But a Parliament of Canada report written in July 2009 that examined the idea of Canadians suing foreign countries that are sponsors of terrorism warned “limited seizable assets in Canada.”
“Victims will find themselves competing for the few, if any, assets available for recovery,” the report read.