A conservative Iranian paper on Saturday blasted a US court decision ordering Tehran to pay 311 million dollars to the brother of an Iranian dissident slain by Tehran agents in Paris in 1990.
"This sort of court verdict indicates that the United States wants to confiscate all Iranian assets on one or another excuse," the English-language Tehran Times said in an editorial.
"The government of Iran must adopt specific measures to retaliate."
Cyrus Elahi, a US citizen born in Iran, was gunned down in Paris by Iranian secret agents in October 1990 as the Islamic Republic sought to eliminate opposition at home and abroad, according to US court documents.
In its judgement, the US District Court on Wednesday ordered Iran to pay the damages to Elahi's brother, Daryosh, a professor at Harvard University.
Two Iranians implicated in the murder were jailed in Paris in 1996 following an investigation, which turned up evidence of plans to assassinate numerous Iranian dissidents abroad.
But the paper blasted the ruling, saying that, "at the time, even the French government did not point its finger at Iran."
It said that Elahi worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as well as the Savak, the dreaded secret police of the former imperial regime overthrown by the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Under US law, citizens can sue foreign governments in US courts for acts of alleged state-sponsored terrorism.
The Iranian parliament in November passed a reciprocal measure, allowing suits against the United States in the nation's Islamic courts.
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since April 1980, several month after radicals stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage -- TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
