Victims of the October 7 attacks demand $1 billion from Iran in a lawsuit
More than 60 American citizens and their family members who were injured, killed, or captured during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Iran, demanding compensation of more than a billion dollars.
A federal court in Washington, D.C., began examining the case and the evidence presented by the families of the victims of the October 7 attack. At the same time, three American families whose members were victims of the Hamas attack filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, in the Southern District of New York, against the governments of Iran and Syria, accusing them of By providing financial support and other material assistance to Hamas’ “terrorist” activities.
The case papers say that the Iranian government praised the Hamas attack, and that there is a lot of evidence about Tehran’s long-term role in financing and arming its arms in the region, including the Houthi militia and the Hamas movement.
The lawsuit papers, some details of which were reported by the Semaphore website, say that the case was filed on behalf of members of the Raanan family, the Glisko family, and the Ludmir family. Hamas had kidnapped Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie on October 7, and detained them in the Gaza Strip before They were released in a prisoner exchange several weeks later.
The Glisko family says in the legal claim that their 20-year-old son, Itai Glisko, from New Jersey, served as a sergeant in the Israeli army, and lost his life in the war with Hamas on October 8.
As for the family of Jeffrey Ludmir, the third plaintiff in the legal claim is Daniel Levi Ludmir’s uncle, a 34-year-old doctor and father of two children. Daniel was killed by Hamas while providing medical assistance to the wounded in Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel.
Lawyers from the “Siaden” law firm participating in filing the lawsuit indicated that more plaintiffs and defendants may be added to the case as additional information about the October 7 attack is collected. The families of the victims are demanding compensation under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), and accuse these countries of involvement in planning and financing this attack.
The New York lawsuit also accuses Binance and its Chinese founder, Changping Zhao, a company that runs the largest digital currency exchange operating from China internationally, and since 2021 has been facing charges of tax crimes and money laundering.
The lawsuit accused the company of allowing Hamas to use its cryptocurrency platform for financial transactions and payments. The victims’ lawyers said in the lawsuit that this company provided significant assistance to Hamas, Iran, and Syria through their use of the platform as a financing mechanism, thus concealing financial transactions from official regulatory authorities.
People visit the site of the “Nova” festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen (Reuters)
The Wall Street Journal had indicated, in a report following the October 7 attacks, that the Hamas movement had received more than $93 million in cryptocurrencies between August 2021 and June 2023.
This sparked widespread criticism from US lawmakers and authorities, and raised concerns about platforms that deal with cryptocurrencies and their role in financing terrorism. American lawmakers presented a draft law to combat the financing of terrorism through cryptocurrencies, and aims to restrict accounts linked to terrorist groups. The draft law said that hostile countries use these platforms to avoid possible sanctions from the American side.
In November, Binance reached a settlement with the Treasury Department for $4.3 billion, admitting that Hamas and other extremist groups used the exchange illegally.
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2024-02-02 12:17:54
