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Iran’s Bank Mellat to seek up to £1bn in redress from UK

Iran Materials 5 February 2014 12:05 (UTC +04:00)
Iran’s Bank Mellat plans to sue the British government with a damages claim of up to one billion pounds for loss of business caused by illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic
Iran’s Bank Mellat to seek up to £1bn in redress from UK

Iran's Bank Mellat plans to sue the British government with a damages claim of up to one billion pounds for loss of business caused by illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic, PressTV reported.

The lawsuit, which will be filed by Zaiwalla and Co lawyers on behalf of Bank Mellat in the commercial court in London this week, will seek compensation to restore the bank to the financial position it would have been in, had the business restrictions not been imposed.

The Iranian bank has been banned from trading with the UK since 2009 over charges of involvement in Tehran's nuclear energy program.

Sanctions against Bank Mellat were overturned by Britain's Supreme Court in June 2013 but have still not been repealed.

The highest British court ruled that the UK government was wrong to have imposed sanctions on the Iranian bank in 2009, and that the Treasury's directive in this regard was "irrational" and "disproportionate."

Western countries have taken a wide range of steps against Iranian companies and banks in recent years including freezing their assets, blocking trade and preventing them from doing business with Western banks.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

The US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran rejects the allegation.

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