Luxembourg Court Says Not to Transfer Iran's $1.6bln to US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Luxembourg court said Iranian assets worth $1.6 billion held by Clearstream as compensation for alleged terror victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks will not be transferred to the US amid Washington's pressures.
A Luxembourg district judge has blocked the transfer of funds and ruled that the Clearstream clearinghouse, a financial company owned by Deutsche Boerse based in Luxembourg, would be subject to a daily fine of $1.09 million if it moved the money, the Luxembourg Court of Cassation said in a statement.
It added that the appeals court had found the US seizure demand "inadmissible" and in violation of Luxembourg’s national law since the type of account, in which the cash is held in the European country, is "unseizable."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that the country had won a legal "victory" over the assets that had long been frozen on a US request in Luxembourg.
"$1.6 billion of our money was in Luxembourg and the Americans had put their hands on it," Rouhani said, adding that after trying for months, "We succeeded some and freed this money from the Americans' grasp."
A Tuesday report by the Washington Free Beacon, however, claimed that the Trump administration has received guarantees Iran will not repatriate the money.
Citing senior Trump administration officials, it said the United States has "received assurances that the funds continue to be frozen and will not be transferred to Iran at this time."
Back in 2012, a New York court claimed there was evidence to show that Iran provided “material support and resources” to al-Qaeda operatives that carried out the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001.
The New York court awarded the plaintiffs damages of over $7 billion.
Iran has denied any links to al-Qaeda or any involvement in the 9/11 attacks whose perpetrators were mostly from Saudi Arabia.
