A US court has ruled that Iran must pay more than 420 million dollars to 12 US victims of a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem carried out by the Iran-supported Palestinian militant group Hamas. The court awarded 123.34 million dollars for physical and emotional damages to the plaintiffs, four of whom were not present at the bombing but whose relatives were affected, and 300 million dollars in punitive damages against the government of Iran, court papers indicated. In its ruling issued September 10, the court said it arrived at a “default judgement” since the defendants — the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards — failed to attend a January hearing. The case stems from the September 4, 1997 suicide bombing at the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem that killed five people and wounded nearly 200 others, including eight of the plaintiffs who filed two separate lawsuits in 2000 and 2001 which the court later consolidated. Full Story
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