Bahrain has been ordered by the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration in The Hague to pay $240 million damages along with the litigation prices of two Iranian state-owned banks over the illegal expropriation of their operations in Manama. It has additionally been ordered to launch $1.7 billion in frozen property.
“The PCA dominated in favour of Iran in opposition to the Bahrain authorities saying that the seizure of Iranian banks’ shares in Future Financial institution was in opposition to worldwide legislation and bilateral agreements between the 2 international locations,” mentioned Tavakol Habibzadeh, an official with the Vice Presidency for Authorized Affairs in Tehran, in keeping with IRNA. He additionally went on to explain Bahrain’s actions as “political retribution”.
Iran’s Central Financial institution had been accused by Bahrain’s public prosecutor of “money laundering” over $1.3 billion together with 12 different banks, utilizing the Manama-based Future Financial institution, which was arrange in 2004 as a three way partnership between Iranian banks Saderat and Melli. Fines and jail sentences have been additionally handed right down to quite a lot of defendants within the Gulf kingdom’s largest case of its type.
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Across the time of the 2015 nuclear deal and the rift between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Bahraini central financial institution positioned Future Financial institution underneath its administration, accusing it of being concerned in sanctions-evading operations, earlier than closing it a yr later after Manama severed all diplomatic ties with Tehran.
Earlier this month, forward of the PCA’s ruling, Bahrain’s high courtroom upheld its verdict in opposition to the Iranian banks and 6 Future Financial institution officers, 5 of whom have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, whereas the sixth was given a five-year time period.
Reacting to the information on Twitter, Iran’s former overseas minister Javad Zarif described it as “An essential triumph of the rule of legislation. We all know the origin of such lawless bullying, and it needs to be stopped at its roots.”
“Arbitrary financial coercion by the US continues to undermine the worldwide financial order,” he added.
