US judge orders $1.6bn payout to the families of troops killed in 1983 bombing of Beirut barracks
▶ Iranian central bank told to pay for attack on Marine Corps base that killed 241 US service members
Iran’s central bank and a European intermediary have been ordered to pay $1.6 billion in compensation to family members of troops killed in the 1983 car bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon.
The ruling was made by US District Judge Loretta Preska, sitting in New York.
The judge said a 2019 federal law stripped Bank Markazi, the Iranian central bank, of sovereign immunity in a lawsuit that was brought to enforce a judgment against Iran for providing material support to the attackers.
The lawsuit also names Luxembourg-based Clearstream Banking, which is holding the assets in a client account.
Clearstream parent company Deutsche Boerse said it was considering an appeal against the decision.
Clearstream will consider “all relevant interests and responsibilities” and comply with its legal and regulatory obligations in handling the funds, Deutsche Boerse said.
It said that it did not view the court’s ruling as increasing the risk from the lawsuit in a way that would require the companies involved to make financial provisions.
Lawyers for the parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bombing at the Marine Corps barracks on October 23, 1983, killed 241 US service members. The victims and their families won a $2.6 billion judgment against Iran in a federal court case in 2007 over the attack.
Six years later, they sought to seize bond proceeds allegedly owned by Bank Markazi and processed by Clearstream to partially satisfy the court judgment. Bank Markazi said that was not allowed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally shields foreign governments from liability in US courts.
In January 2020, the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling in the families’ favour and ordered the case to be reconsidered in light of a new law, adopted a month earlier as part of the National Defence Authorisation Act.
Ms Preska said the 2019 law authorised US courts to allow the seizure of assets held outside the country to satisfy judgments against Iran in terrorism cases, “notwithstanding” other laws such as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that would grant immunity.
A Luxembourg court in 2021 ordered Clearstream not to move the funds until a court in that country recognised the US ruling. Clearstream has challenged that decision.
A judge said a federal law passed in 2019 stripped Bank Markazi, the Iranian central bank, of sovereign immunity