June 17, 2010: Chalk up another unprecedented legal victory by Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center for victims of terror. This time the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down an important decision to the family of an American citizen who was murdered in a 1996 Hamas suicide bombing aboard the No. 18 Jerusalem bus.

In 2000, we brought suit in federal court in New York on behalf of the family against the Islamic Republic of Iran. After Iran refused to appear in a US court, a judgment in the amount of $180 million in compensatory and punitive damages was awarded. Now all we had to do was find a way to collect the judgment for the family.

In 2007, an investigation by us identified a house in Queens, New York owned by Bank Melli Iran, an Iranian government-owned bank. A turnover proceeding was filed demanding that Bank Melli sell the house to pay off part of the judgment. Bank Melli vigorously opposed the family's efforts. Ironically, this Iran-owned bank claimed that forcing the sale of the Queens property would be an illegal confiscation of property in violation of the United States Constitution. In response, the family alleged that pursuant to the Terror Risk Insurance Act of 2002, (a law which we had successfully lobbied Congress to pass in order to assist terror victims in collecting on their judgments) in every case involving an award against a terrorist party, the property of the terrorist party and its agencies and instrumentalities can be subject to attachment and execution.  Terror victims clearly had the right to attach the property of an Iranian instrumentality, such as a government owned bank, and sell it off to satisfy their judgments against Iran.

The District Court agreed! Judge Leonard Wexler rejected Bank Melli's contention that although it was owned by the government of Iran it was still an independent entity and its assets should not be used to partially satisfy the judgment. Judge Wexler also noted Bank Melli's own involvement in assisting to fund the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and so should not be regarded as some kind of innocent bystander to Iran's illegal conduct.

Bank Melli appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals handed down its opinion affirming the District Court's decision, allowing the Queens house to be sold for the benefit of the family.

While the United States, the European Union and the United Nations have still been unable to pass any meaningful sanctions targeting the Iranian banking system, terror victims utilizing civil suits are once again forcing the Iranians to pay, and so making terrorism costly for the terrorists. So many years after the Hamas bombing of the No. 18 Jerusalem bus, we are securing a measure of justice for the family.

To read the court decision click here