TEHRAN — A court in Iran on Thursday ordered the United States government to pay over $4 billion to the families of Iranian nuclear scientists who have been assassinated in targeted attacks in recent years.
The court mentioned the occupying regime of Israel, saying the U.S. supported the “Zionist regime” in its “organized crime” against the victims.
The court branch, which is dedicated to the review of Iranian complaints against the U.S., summoned 37 former American officials, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Iran envoy Brian Hook and former Pentagon chief Ashton Carter.
The families of three nuclear scientists who had been assassinated in targeted slayings, along with one nuclear scientist wounded in an attack, filed the lawsuit in Tehran, IRNA news agency reported. The court ordered that the U.S. pay

$4.3 billion in total compensation, including fines.
In late 2020, Iran pointed the finger at the occupying regime of Israel for assassinating its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun while he was traveling in a car outside Tehran.
Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists — namely Masoud Alimuhammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Ahmadi Roshan — were assassinated, while another, Fereydoon Abbasi, was wounded.
In the latest terrorist attack in Tehran on May 22, Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei was assassinated by two motorcyclists who shot him five times before fleeing the scene.
The New York Times on May 25 cited an intelligence official as saying that the occupying regime of Israel had informed American officials that it was behind the assassination.
Several U.S. courts have in the past fined the Iranian government under various pretexts, authorizing the government to pay damages to American plaintiffs from Iran’s seized assets.
Iran also has placed sanctions on prominent American political and military officials for “terrorism” and “human rights violations,” in retaliation for the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top commander, General Qassem Soleimani, two years ago.