$33M to Family of 1992 Bombing Victim

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran must pay more than $33 million to the family of a U.S.-born Israeli diplomat killed in a 1992 terrorist attack, a federal judge said Monday.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said Iran was responsible for the truck bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Argentina. The blast killed 29 people, including David Ben-Rafael, who was born in the United States before emigrating to Israel.

Hezbollah accepted responsibility for the bombing and the U.S. has held Iran responsible for helping finance and organizing the group's activities.....

In a similar ruling in September, a federal judge ruled that Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

Though Iran has faced several hefty judgments like this in the past, it has refused to acknowledge the lawsuits and has not sent lawyers to defend itself.

Huvelle awarded the money to Ben-Rafael's widow, father and children for wrongful death and pain and suffering. The ruling allows the family to try to collect Iranian assets from various sources around the world....

I don't suppose the State Department or Justice Department would consider intervening so as to prevent this award from being collected. But they are considering doing just that in another case, involving the Palestinians (see previous post, just below).