The US Federal Court Ruled Against the Islamic Regime in Iran

Oct 1st, 2007

MEHR Iran that was instrumental in filing a lawsuit against the Islamic Regime of Iran in 2003 is delighted to announce that on 9/28/2007 Judge John Bates made a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Hossein Nikbin, against Islamic Regime of Iran, Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Monetary damages was awarded to Mr. Nikbin. This is an historic event. It is the first time that a ruling regime is held liable for torture.

Contact Person: Dr. Mohammad Parvin MEHR Founding Director Te: (310) 384-8700 He testified as an expert witness about this case at the US Federal Court, D.C. on February 2, 2007 

Background: In September 2003, after several years of hard work, MEHR Iran announced the filing of a lawsuit against the Islamic Regime of Iran (IRI), the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, and Ali Akbar Fallahian Khuzestani. MEHR Iran which had facilitated the lawsuit through the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), made the lawsuit announcement in a conference at the FURAMA Hotel in Los Angeles. This conference was organized by MEHR to commemorate the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran. The lawsuit charged that agents of the Islamic Regime of Iran tortured the plaintiff, Gholam Nikbin, 56, who served three years in jail for his conversion to the Mormon faith and for permitting dancing at his wedding. Nikbin was whipped with an electric cable on his bare soles, flogged with a leather whip and hung upside-down during interrogation and punishment by Iran’s security forces in the mid-1990s. The torture damaged his kidneys and made walking difficult.

After the lawsuit was filed, Dr. William F. Pepper who had worked with CJA to make the lawsuit possible, continued his efforts to prepare it for the trial. Dr. Pepper is an expert on international law issues and was the King Family’s lawyer-investigator for the 1999 trial in Memphis for conspiracy to do harm to Martin Luther King. The case was finally tried at the Federal Court of the United State on February 2, 2007. Dr. Pepper and three other trial lawyers presented the case and three witnesses testified on behalf of plaintiff. Dr. Parvin, the founding Director of MEHR testified as expert witness on human rights violation in Iran as well as the power structure of the Islamic regime in Iran. Judge Bates didn’t order punitive damages against the regime and its agencies. He also decided not to overturn his earlier order dismissing the case against Rafsanjani, holding that his personal contacts with the jurisdiction were not sufficient or consistent enough to justify personal jurisdiction For more background information, please refer to MEHR website at: http://mehr.org/index_massacre_2003.htm MEHR

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