Iranian court orders US to pay $330M in damages for 1980 coup plot

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – A court in Tehran has ruled that the United States must shell out $330 million in damages to survivors and victims of the 1980 Nojeh coup plot to overthrow the then-Iranian government.

In a ruling on Saturday, the international wing of the Iranian judiciary accused the US of “orchestrating and executing” the aborted coup and called on Washington to pay the damages, the judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency reported.

The verdict came in response to a lawsuit filed by survivors and families of the coup victims against the US government and seven other defendants.

On July 24, a court hearing was held in Tehran where survivors and families of the victims presented their cases against the US.

After “careful consideration of the case and examination of available documents”, the court ruled that the US must pay $30 million in “material and moral” damages and $300 million in “punitive damages.”

The coup plot in July 1980, a year after the Iranian revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi rule, was aimed at toppling the government of then-President Abdolhassan Banisadr.

The coup attempt was carried out on July 9-10, 1980, by hundreds of military officers allegedly at the behest of the last Pahlavi Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, which was finally aborted.

The coup was planned at the Nojeh Air Base near Kabudrahang city in western Hamedan province.

The coup came as American diplomats taken hostage following the US embassy takeover in November 1979 were still in Iranian custody.

In July 2017, Iranian authorities said the US had a “key role” in planning and executing the 1980 coup, citing documents carrying confession by a pilot who had allegedly collaborated with plotters.