U.S. COURT AWARDS $466 MILLION TO FAMILY OF AN IRANIAN-AMERICAN EXECUTED IN IRAN

On December 28, 2007, Judge Henry H. Kennedy awarded the family of Siavash Bayani, a naturalized U.S. citizen, more than $66 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages arising from his arrest, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its agents. The family was represented by Zohreh Mizrahi, Esq. of the Law Offices of Mike S. Manesh, a Los Angeles law firm.

Siavash Bayani, his wife, Fatemeh and two children, Babak and Banafsheh were born in Iran. Mr. Bayani was an officer in the Iranian Air Force under the former Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi.

As an officer under the Shah, Mr. Bayani was not trusted by the Islamic regime which overthrew the government in 1979 and in 1981, when the Islamic government began a systematic purge of those military officers who had served under the Shah’s government, Mr. Bayani, watched in horror as his fellow officers were arrested and sentenced to death as traitors and spies.

In 1984, Mr. Bayani and his family left Iran and settled in the United States. In 1994, Mr. Bayani and his wife became naturalized United States citizens.

Later that year, Mr. Bayani’s mother became gravely ill with leukemia. Mr. Bayani began making inquiries to determine whether it would be safe for him to return to Iran and was assured of a safe return. Mr. Bayani and his wife returned to Iran in February 1995 to oversee the medical treatment of his mother.

Immediately upon arrival at the airport in Tehran, Mr. Bayani’s passports and travel documents were seized and confiscated by the Iranian airport authorities.

After five months in Iran, Mr. Bayani felt it was unsafe to remain and, although unable to leave because his passports had been confiscated, had his wife return to the United States on the first available flight. Less than 24 hours after his wife escaped, Mr. Bayani was arrested by armed agents of the Islamic Republic.

Mr. Bayani was imprisoned in the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran and was not permitted to contact his family for more than a year. In August 1996, on his son’s 22nd birthday, Mr. Bayani was allowed a brief telephone call to his family, during which he made it clear that he had been tortured and was suffering in prison.

Mr. Bayani was eventually permitted to write letters to his family. Each time, the letters sounded promising, but contained coded messages letting them know he was being tortured and denied food. In the final letter from Mr. Bayani to his wife, in August 1997, he asked her to,

"pretend that I was killed in the war between Iran and Iraq, and that you are the one who has to take this broken ship to the shore. And you have to do it without me."

A few weeks later, the family received news that Mr. Bayani had been hung and the official Iranian newspaper Sallam reported that Mr. Bayani was executed as a spy for the “Great Satan”. Mrs. Bayani and her children were devastated, had no financial support once her husband was executed, and had already spent the family’s entire savings trying to gain his release.

On October 6, 2004, the family filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its agents. None of the Defendants entered an appearance in the matter and the Clerk of the Court made entries of default against all Defendants in 2005.

During a heart-wrenching three-day bench trial on July 9-11, 2007, Plaintiffs’ attorneys, Zohreh Mizrahi and Mike S. Manesh, submitted documentary evidence and elicited testimony from the family, eyewitnesses and experts.

On December 28, 2007, Judge Henry H. Kennedy awarded the family $466 million, including $66 million in compensatory damages against The Islamic republic of Iran, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and $400 million in punitive damages against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, for their devastating loss.