Hague Tribunal Figures in Terror Case Involving Iran, Chicago Museum

Iran is in a standoff with a federal court in Chicago concerning information a judge has ordered to be turned over to lawyers for terrorism victims who hold multimillion-dollar legal judgments against the Islamic Republic because of its support for the terrorist group Hezbollah.

In May, Judge Blanche Manning ordered Iran to give the victims detailed information about Iran's claims to ancient tablets and other artifacts that the victims' lawyers have sought to seize from collections at the University of Chicago and Chicago's Field Museum. Last month, against the objections of the Justice Department, the judge ordered Iran to identify all of its assets in America so the victims lawyers' could attempt to seize those items and satisfy a $251 million default judgment against Iran in connection with a lawsuit regarding a 1997 bombing in Jerusalem that killed five people and wounded almost 200.

Now, Iran is balking at a part of the May order that requires the Islamic Republic to provide details of claims it has filed on some of the artifacts with an international panel in The Hague, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, which was set up in 1981 by an international agreement that ended the hostage crisis.

On Monday, Iran's representative wrote to the tribunal's clerks asking for various documents filed in connection with the American-Iranian dispute. "The documents are to be produced to the plaintiffs in a litigation pending before a domestic court," M.H. Zahedin-Labbaf wrote, a court filing in Chicago shows.

Clerks for the tribunal, whose cases often drag on for years, wrote back the same day that they would not provide the documents. "We respectfully inform you that we are unable to comply," the international court's co-registrars, Jessica Hilburn-Holmes and Ali Marossi, wrote, citing tribunal rules which keep such records confidential.

An attorney familiar with the tribunal said Iran probably submitted the request knowing it would be denied, and that Iran in any event would probably have its own copies of the records filed with the tribunal.

An attorney for Iran, Thomas Corcoran Jr., said Iran was simply trying to abide by the tribunal's agreed rules. "Iran is unlikely to turn over stuff if the tribunal tells it not to," he said.

A federal magistrate has ordered Iran to produce the tribunal filings by July 30. A lawyer for the bombing victims said he was unavailable for comment yesterday.