Tehran, YJC. Foreign Ministry has blasted the confiscation of a New York-based Shiite foundation by the US government.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs says a 6-year legal case against the non-profit, Manhattan-based Alavi
Foundation is in stark contrast to the reality and lacks legitimacy.
Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham
stated that by forfeiting the Midtown skyscraper which is a property of the
foundation, the US federal prosecutors have violated US regulations in
providing religious freedom for the citizens.
Afkham blasted the verdict
as an entirely political decision, stating that the Alavi Foundation is a
completely independent entity with no connection to Iran.
She added that the case had
been filed only to pressure Iran and it will challenge the credibility of the
US judicial system.
According to a court
document filed on Thursday, a U.S. judge agreed to sell the building, owned by
the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corporation,
and other Iranian forfeited assets on charges of "money laundering”, "illegal
sanctions-violation”, and to reimburse the victims of terrorist attacks
allegedly sponsored by Iran, Tehran Times reports.
Judge Katherine Forrest
ruled that the U.S. government can seize holdings of the Alavi Foundation and
resell many of them in order to raise money to compensate the families of
victims of terror who, in the past, have won judgments in their favor.
The U.S. claimed Bank Melli,
Iran’s national bank, co-owned the building through Assa. U.S. District Judge
Katherine Forrest in Manhattan, who presided over the case, in September
agreed, ruling that Assa acted as a front for Bank Melli.
Forrest rejected the
defendant’s argument that it was an "innocent owner” of 650 Fifth Ave. and
other properties.
"Alavi argues that forfeiture
of the foundation’s 60 percent interest in 650 Fifth Avenue Co. and therefore
in the building -- assets worth more than $500 million -- is grossly
disproportionate to its offense,” Forrest said. "This court disagrees.”
Assa had argued that the
forfeiture of the entire building at 650 Fifth Ave. would be
"unconstitutionally disproportionate.”