AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iran has issued an indictment against the US government and military officials in the case of the 2020 assassination of top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani, the judiciary chief for Tehran province says.
Ali Alghasi-Mehr announced the news on Sunday, adding that a public trial of the defendants will be held within the next month.
“After collecting more than 12,000 pages of documents, the 164-page indictment was issued against 73 American officials regarding the martyrdom of Hajj Qassem Soleimani and his companions and was referred to Tehran Criminal Court number 1,” he said.
“All the defendants, who are US statesmen and military officials, have been officially notified of the case and required to introduce their lawyers.”
Alghasi-Mehr also noted that the case is one of those that are being pursued against the US government and its allies over their crimes against the Iranian nation.
On January 3, 2020, General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), was assassinated along with his companions in a US drone strike authorized by then-US President Donald Trump in Iraq.
He was highly revered because of his key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Also in his remarks, Tehran’s judiciary chief said that the US had been convicted in a case brought by patients with the rare disease of epidermolysis bullosa (EB) or butterfly patients.
The US government has to pay a total of $1,475 billion in material damages to EB patients ($5 million to each claimant) and $5,310 billion as compensation for moral damage caused by Washington’s illegal sanctions against Iran, he added.
Alghasi-Mehr further referred to the case of the 2018 deadly attack in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz that was conducted by a US-backed terrorist group.
He said a court had ordered the US government to pay a total of $960 million to the families of the martyrs, as well as $64 million in material and moral damages, and $1,280 billion in punitive damages to the claimants.
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