Seven Jewish-Iranian families have served former Iranian President Seyed Mohammed Khatami with a lawsuit filed under U.S. law that seeks the return of their family members who disappeared while Khatami was in power, or compensation for that loss.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the Southern District of New York by the law firm of Jaroslawicz & Jaros, and a spokesman for one of the lawyers said Khatami was served with the action, seeking "hundreds of millions of dollars" during a dinner held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Virginia late Friday.
It was filed under the Torture Victims Protection Act and Alien Tort Claims Act, which date to a time when U.S. courts were perceived as a forum for when there's injustice and the oppressed are not allowed to seek justice in their own lands.
"The first goal is to try to raise public awareness and put pressure on Iran to release (the family members)," a spokesman for Jerusalem attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told WND.
"Obviously the families would rather have family members back than be compensated for pain and suffering," he said.
He said another goal would be to raise the profile of Khatami's human rights record, which he described as "atrocious."
The action was brought by seven families, currently of Los Angeles and Israel, over the disappearance of their family members at different times from 1994 through 1997 as they sought to leave Iran to Pakistan.
"Upon information and belief at least twelve Jewish Iranians remain imprisoned in the Islamic Republic of Iran (where) they were and are still being subjected to brutal torture and interrogations during their wrongful imprisonment in the infamous Iranian prisons," the lawsuit itself said.
"In his position of authority as the President of Iran, the Defendant was the supreme director of the Iranian security services, the police forces, the prison services and the court system."
The action alleges Khatami's policies resulted in the imprisonment of their relatives without trials and a ban on information being released about them.
The families waited until Khatami physically was in the United States to launch the action, and rules allow him 20 days to answer the claims, or be in default, the lawyers said.
The federal laws ,which were cited in the action, allow foreigners to use American courts to sue their tormenters for torture and kidnapping that happens outside the United States.
Robert Tolchin of New York, Darshan-Leitner and Pooya Dayanim of Los Angeles are representing the families.
The lawsuit says when Muslim citizens are caught trying to leave without permission, punishment normally is a "small fine" or a short jail sentence.
However, the plaintiffs allege that Khatami "singled out the Jewish community and authorized the policy of secretly imprisoning the Jews indefinitely" without providing the families any information.
But word has leaked out anway.
In the case of the Tehrani family of Los Angeles, a former Muslim neighbor has sworn out an affidavit testifying that he has seen their missing son, Babak Tehrani, in a Tehran prison two years after his disappearance," the action alleges.
"These Persian Jewish families are seeking to bring Khatami before an American court for his involvement in the torture and imprisonment of their loves ones in Iran," said Darshan-Leitner. "It is shocking that the State Department would grant this anti-Semitic criminal a travel visa instead of joining with the families in the struggle to bring him to justice."
Khatami is on a speaking tour of the United States now, addressing Islamic groups such as CAIR in private settings.
CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
Khatami's appearances have prompted other protests, too.
Janice Crouse, senior Fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America said the leadership of the Washington National Cathedral should be "ashamed" of allowing Khatami to speak there.
"Khatami's speech was a slap in the face to Americans; his 'dialogue' about Abrahamic faiths is a cover for his nation's persecution of those who adhere to those faiths," she said Friday. "Why welcome a ringleader of Iranian persecution and oppression? Khatami was given a bully pulpit even though we know that his 'dialogue' is demagoguery and his version of history doesn't square with the facts."
She said Khatami's policies "resulted in the persecution of Christians, other religious minorities, and even those among Iran's own who were dissidents."
And a spokesman for the Assyrian Christians voiced his group's opposition to Khatami's appearance in Chicago.
Sabri Atman said it was an insult.
"Our people are scattered across the world because of radical Moslems like Khatami and their slaughter of our people," Atman told WND.
"I am a Christian Assyrian, and I have a very limited chance to talk about my people," he said. "I feel very strange that Khatami comes to the United States and is free to speak."
He said the Assyrian Christians are "the original people" in the region but they no longer have the same rights in their country that Khatami does in the United States.
"While he enjoys the freedom to say whatever he wants against America, the Assyrian Christians in his own country suffer even as we speak. He does not afford to others the freedom he enjoys in America," Atman said.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., has described Khatami as "one of the chief propagandists of the Islamic fascist regime."
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