A Luxembourg court has ordered a US request to transfer $ 1.6 billion in Iranian assets to victims of the September 11 attacks, according to an official statement on Monday.
The decision came to confirm Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's statement, on Sunday, that his country had achieved a legal victory by being able to free frozen Iranian assets in Luxembourg for a long time, at the request of the United States.
In an official statement in Luxembourg, a court of appeal decided that the US request to confiscate these funds was rejected because the type of account in question cannot be seized according to Luxembourg law.
The funds are frozen in Luxembourg-based Clearstream Financial.
However, the statement said that the court's decision was not final and could be appealed to the Luxembourg Supreme Court.
In a separate decision, the statement said: On April 3, a Luxembourg judge suspended the transfer of funds to the United States, and said that Clearstream would be subject to a fine of 1 million euros ($ 1.09 million) per day if the money was transferred.
On 7 April, the President of the Luxembourg Court rejected Clearstream's attempt to lift the transfer ban for procedural reasons.
Tensions rose between Tehran and Washington after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
In 2012 a court in New York ordered Iran to pay $ 7 billion in damages for the September 11 attacks; on the pretext that Iran had helped Al Qaeda by allowing elements to travel through its territory.
Iran denied the accusation and refused to pay the amount, which prompted the American authorities to request the confiscation of Iranian funds wherever they are found.
And on Sunday, the Iranian President said in a televised speech: Our central bank and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently managed to achieve a very good victory in a legal battle.
He added that they had been able to liberate the one billion and 600 million dollars in frozen Iranian assets in Luxembourg, which the Americans had frozen and illegally seized ... After months of attempts, we succeeded a few days ago that we freed these funds from the grip of the Americans.
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