A Canadian court has ordered the federal government of Iran to pay $200 million to a British Columbia mechanic who was branded an \u2018infidel\u2019 and tortured for criticizing the Islamic regime.<\/p>\n
In a choice obtained by Global News, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded $100 million in compensation and one other $100 million in punitive damages to Zahed Haftlang.<\/p>\n
The court said Haftlang, an Iranian refugee who fled to Canada in 2001, merited the unusually large sum due to the \u201cyears of mistreatment\u201d and \u201clifetime of mental trauma\u201d he suffered.<\/p>\n
Justice Lee Akazaki wrote that while a single judgment won’t deter Iran\u2019s abuses, the \u201caccumulation of harm awards, often executed against Iran\u2019s frozen foreign assets, has some effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although foreign governments are generally immune from Canada\u2019s civil courts, Justice Akazaki ruled that Iran\u2019s torture of Haftlang was motivated by the regime\u2019s politics, religion and beliefs.<\/p>\n
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Consequently, it amounted to \u201cterrorist activity\u201d akin to staging attacks on foreign soil intended to silence opposition to the regime, so Iran didn’t profit from state immunity, the judge ruled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is due to this fact liable to Mr. Haftlang and answerable to a civil judgment by this court for his loss brought on by the acts committed against him,\u201d in keeping with the 13-page decision handed down on May 29.<\/p>\n
The choice is the most recent against Iran by a Canadian court under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which allows those impacted by terrorism to sue state sponsors of the groups that harmed them.<\/p>\n
It marked the primary time a court in Canada had found that terrorist activity included Iran\u2019s atrocities against its own residents, and will potentially open the door for a lot of more such lawsuits.<\/p>\n
Haftlang\u2019s lawyer, Mark Arnold, said it would be the largest sum ever awarded to a person in Canada. The Ontario court earlier awarded $100 million in damages to the estates of six passengers killed when the regime shot down Ukraine Airlines flight 752\u00a0on Jan. 8, 2020.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tZahed Haftlang, seen here within the documentary \u2018My Enemy, My Brother,\u2019 was tortured by the Iranian regime and now lives in B.C.\u2019s Lower Mainland.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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The choice stems from abuses committed within the\u00a0Nineties,\u00a0but\u00a0the regime has continued to mistreat opponents, most recently in January with the mass killing of anti-regime demonstrators.<\/p>\n
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While the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran in February initially raised hopes of regime change, that seems unlikely as U.S. President Donald Trump struggles to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
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Haftlang is now a Canadian citizen and works as an auto mechanic in North Vancouver, B.C. But before he resettled in Canada 25 years ago, he was recruited into the Iranian military at age 13.<\/p>\n
On the time he enlisted as a toddler soldier, in 1981, Iran was at war with neighbouring Iraq. Haftlang was captured by Iraqi forces and held prisoner until the conflict ended, at which point he was sent home.<\/p>\n
But Iranian authorities viewed him with suspicion, in keeping with the court decision. At his debriefing, he criticized the Iranian regime, prompting authorities to call him an infidel and send him to prison.<\/p>\n
Throughout the two years he was held captive, Iranian police and prison guards beat him, attached objects to his genitals, electrocuted him and left him with head trauma, the court said.<\/p>\n
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