Tens of millions worth of seized Iranian government properties have been sold off in Canada and the proceeds handed to victims of terror victims, the Canadian Global News has reported.
Two Iranian-owned buildings in Ottawa and Toronto have been sold and the money has been given away to alleged 'terror victims.'
The valuable Ottawa property, sold for $26.5 million, was used as the Iranian Cultural Center, and the Toronto building, sold for $1.85 million, served as the Center for Iranian Studies, the Global News reported.
In addition to the $28 million earned from the sale of the two properties, the victims were also awarded a share of some $2.6 million seized from Iran’s bank accounts, according to a report by Press TV.
The recipients include several American families who have filed claims in the Ontario and Nova Scotia courts, seeking a share of Iran’s assets seized by the Canadian government.
In particular, they include the family of Marla Bennett, a US citizen killed in a 2002 bombing that rocked the Hebrew University in Jerusalem al-Quds.
The attacks are mostly blamed on Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements Hamas and Hezbollah. The families claimed that the Iranian government supported the two organizations and was therefore responsible for their actions.
Iran has denied any role in the attacks which the courts have based their cases to appropriate the country's frozen assets.
Tehran had argued that the victims had to prove Iran’s role in each attack instead of just repeating the US government’s baseless allegations.
The seizure and sale of Iranian assets in Canada come as the country has turned into a center of fraud and a safe haven for embezzlers who manage to escape justice in the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri.
KI/PR