Iran's ex-president may be brought to trial
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has plans to get judiciary to
probe into an allegation accusing former President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's government of failing to safeguard the country's
assets in an American bank.
Addressing a press conference in Kerman Province President Rouhani
said he had set up a working group to prepare a report on the issue
of the confiscation of Iran's assets worth $2 billion in the US,
Iran's news TV channel IRINN aired live.
On Apr. 20, a US court ruled that $2 billion of Iranian assets had
to be turned over to the families of the American victims of a 1983
bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and other attacks blamed
on Iran.
The report has been prepared and it will be introduced to the
public as well as Iran's judiciary to investigate the issue, he
added.
According to Iranian officials, a decision by the former government
in 2008 to purchase the dollar denominated securities is among the
issues paving the way for the assets' confiscation.
Although the former administration knew that the US was posing a
real risk to the assets held in the American banks, the officials
of the former government of the Islamic Republic failed to pullout
Iran's assets from the US banks or sell the US dollar denominated
securities, Rouhani said.
While the country was facing serious allegations over backing
terrorism which led to the assets confiscation, the former
administration had 10 months in 2008 to take out assets from
American banks, he added.
He further added that the country will also sue the US in the
International Court of Justice describing the US court decision as
"illegal".
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