Iran issues indictment against US in Soleimani's assassination case

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Jun 2024 17:52

Tehran’s judiciary chief says the 164-page indictment was issued against 73 American officials.

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A demonstrator holds up a poster of the late IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, during a protest outside the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, early Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP)

Iran has issued an indictment against the United States government and American military officials regarding the 2020 assassination of Lieut. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, announced Ali Alghasi-Mehr, the judiciary chief for Tehran province.

Along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, his Iraqi trench-mate and the second-in-command of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, General Soleimani was assassinated on January 3, 2020, in a US drone strike in Iraq authorized by then-US President Donald Trump.

Martyr Soleimani was on an official visit to Iraq and was in a car with Martyr al-Muhandis at Baghdad's International Airport when they were assassinated. In retaliation, Tehran launched missiles at the Ain al-Assad base in Baghdad, one of the largest US bases in Iraq.

Alghasi-Mehr mentioned on Sunday that a public trial of the defendants would take place within the next month, adding that "after collecting more than 12,000 pages of documents, the 164-page indictment was issued against 73 American officials regarding the martyrdom of Hajj Qassem Soleimani and his companions and was referred to Tehran Criminal Court number 1."

According to the judiciary chief, "All the defendants, who are US statesmen and military officials, have been officially notified of the case and required to introduce their lawyers."

He indicated that this case is one of several being pursued against the US government and its allies for their alleged crimes against the Iranian nation.

In a related context, Alghasi-Mehr mentioned that the US had been convicted in a case brought by patients with epidermolysis bullosa (EB), or butterfly disease. He noted that the US government has been ordered to pay $1.475 billion in material damages to EB patients ($5 million to each claimant) and $5.31 billion in compensation for moral damage due to Washington’s unlawful sanctions against Iran.

Tehran’s judiciary chief also referred to the 2018 deadly attack in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, conducted by a US-backed terrorist group, adding that a court has ordered the US government to pay $960 million to the families of the martyrs, $64 million in material and moral damages, and $1.28 billion in punitive damages to the claimants.