Iran vows to pursue US officials in int’l courts, seize American assets

Iran to wage legal battles against American officials in international courts, Tehran’s judiciary chief says, while calling to seize American assets.

By World Israel News Staff

Iran’s judiciary chief said Tehran will pursue cases against the United States in international courts and seize American assets wherever it can, escalating the Islamic Republic’s legal campaign against Washington after the latest round of US-Iran hostilities.

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei made the threat during an event marking “American Human Rights Week,” an annual Iranian campaign focused on alleged US abuses. He said the judiciary, Foreign Ministry and other state bodies had begun preparing legal files over what Tehran calls American war crimes.

“In this recent imposed war against the Iranian nation, the aggressive US regime committed war crimes and gross violations of human rights, including deliberately and purposefully bombing civilian and immune sites,” Ejei said.

He accused the United States of using multi-stage missiles against civilian areas, including educational, medical and residential sites.

“During the aggression against Iran, the brutal US regime targeted civilian sites with educational, medical, and residential symbols with multi-stage missiles; sites where there were sometimes no military areas within a radius of several kilometers. These are clear examples of war crimes, and an indictment can be issued for each of them,” he said.

The United States and Israel have said their strikes were aimed at Iran’s military, nuclear, missile and political infrastructure.

Iran, however, has accused Washington of striking civilian infrastructure, including water facilities in the coastal town of Sirik, where Tehran said drinking water was cut off to more than 20,000 people in 10 villages.

Ejei said Iranian courts had already issued rulings against American officials whom Tehran holds responsible for harm to Iranian citizens. He acknowledged that enforcing those rulings depends on Iran’s ability to reach US-linked property but said authorities would act whenever assets become accessible.

“From now on, if we gain access to the properties of criminal Americans, we will seize and confiscate them in accordance with the legal ruling of the courts,” Ejei said.

He also referred to what he described as the seizure of an American ship “for the benefit of compatriots who have suffered losses from American crimes.”

It was not immediately clear which vessel Ejei had in mind.

Iran seized the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet, a Chevron-chartered tanker carrying Kuwaiti crude to Texas, in the Gulf of Oman in April 2023.

Iranian authorities later moved to unload roughly $50 million worth of crude after a Tehran court ruled in favor of Iranian patients who sued the US government, arguing that American sanctions had blocked imports of medicine and medical supplies for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare blistering skin disease.

In 2024, the Tehran court ordered the United States to pay about $6.8 billion in damages to the patients. Washington does not recognize Iranian court rulings against the US government and has long argued that its sanctions contain humanitarian exemptions for food and medicine.

Ejei said Iran was compiling evidence, documents, images and witness testimony in accordance with international legal standards and called on Iranian institutions to coordinate their efforts.

The announcement appears aimed at building a legal and political case against Washington while Iran remains locked in disputes with the United States over sanctions, the Strait of Hormuz, shipping security, regional militias and the future of its nuclear program.

It also comes as Iran’s judiciary is intensifying domestic prosecutions tied to the war. Iranian judicial officials have said thousands of people have been arrested on accusations of collaborating with Israel or spreading anti-state propaganda, and human rights groups have warned that trials in national security cases are often rushed and lack basic due process protections.

Ejei, a hardline cleric and longtime fixture of Iran’s security and judicial establishment, has previously called for faster verdicts in cases involving alleged enemy agents, including asset confiscation and executions. Critics of the Iranian judiciary say such cases are frequently based on vague charges, coerced confessions and closed proceedings.

Iranian state media presented Ejei’s remarks as part of a broader push to hold the United States accountable under international law.

courtsIranLawfare