US Judge Orders $1.68 Billion Payout for 1983 Beirut Bombing

(Patria) - A federal judge in New York has ordered Iran's central bank and a European intermediary to pay $1.68 billion to the families of soldiers killed in a car bomb explosion at the US Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983, Reuters reported.

US District Judge Loretta Preska said that a 2019 federal law stripped Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, of sovereign immunity from the lawsuit, which sought to enforce a judgment against Iran for providing material support to the attackers.

The October 23, 1983 attack killed 241 US service members. The victims and their families obtained a $2.65 billion judgment against Iran in federal court in 2007 for the attack.

Six years later, they attempted to seize bond proceeds allegedly held by Bank Markazi and processed by Clearstream Banking SA, a unit of Deutsche Boerse AG based in Luxembourg, to partially satisfy the court judgment. Bank Markazi argued that the lawsuit was not permitted under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which generally protects foreign governments from liability in US courts.

In January 2020, the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling in favor of the families and ordered the case to be reconsidered in light of a new law, passed a month earlier as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Preska said the 2019 law authorizes US courts to allow the seizure of assets held outside the country to satisfy judgments against Iran in terrorism cases, "notwithstanding" other laws like the FSIA that would grant immunity.

A Luxembourg court in 2021 ordered Clearstream not to move funds until a court in that country recognized the US judgment. Clearstream appealed that decision.