Iranians file lawsuits against US over General Soleimani assassination
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Nearly 3,000 Iranians are demanding justice for the material, spiritual, and punitive damage inflicted by the commander's assassination.
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An Iranian national holding a picture of top Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani (IRNA)
A third hearing has been convened in Tehran, Iran, to examine the harm brought about by the US assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top counterterrorism commander, in January 2020.
The case was heard on Saturday before Judge Hosseinzadeh at the Tehran Civil Court's 55th branch, which specializes in international cases.
According to Hosseinzadeh, approximately 3,000 Iranians have sued the US government for the monetary, spiritual, and punitive harm that General Soleimani's assassination inflicted.
Then-US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are among the suspects in the case, he added, adding that "the court session includes 114 classes of legal cases received from different provinces of the country."
Hosseinzadeh added that a legislation calling for more aggressive action against US terrorist attacks in opposition to Iran gave Tehran's Civil Court the authority to handle the matter.
"According to the law, the Judiciary is tasked with dealing with the actions of a government that has martyred one of the senior Iranian military commanders," he continued.
It is worth noting that on January 3 of 2020, the US carried out a drone strike authorized by former US President Donald Trump targeting a car carrying IRGC Al-Quds Force Commander General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trench-mate and the second-in-command of Iraqi PMU (Popular Mobilization Units), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis.
Martyr Soleimani was on an official visit to Iraq and was being transported in a car with Martyr Al-Muhandis from Baghdad's International Airport upon his arrival, before being assassinated by the US.
Last month, Tehran Public Prosecutor Ali Salehi said that in the case of General Soleimani's assassination, 73 persons have been called for trial and indictment, including Trump, Pompeo, and the former director of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie.
Read: General Soleimani, the revolutionary, the martyr, the legend
Last month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called on Iraq to expedite efforts to prosecute the perpetrators responsible for the assassination of both martyrs, Soleimani and Al-Muhandis.
Raisi made his request during a meeting with the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq. The Iraqi top legal delegation, headed by Judge Faiq Zidan, met with Iran's president in Tehran then.
On December 31, Iran announced that it was in the final stages of releasing an official indictment on the case of the murder of IRGC's Quds Force Commander by the United States back in 2020.
