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Read the Trial Transcript [PDF] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NASRIN MOHAMMADI, et al., : : Plaintiffs, : Docket No.: CA 09-1289 : vs. : Washington, DC : 9:07 a.m., Thursday ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, : April 4, 2013 et al., : : Defendants. : X REPORTER'S OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF BENCH TRIAL BEFORE THE HONORABLE BERYL A. HOWELL UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE APPEARANCES: For the Plaintiff: LARRY E. KLAYMAN, ESQ. Law Office of Larry Klayman 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 345 Washington, DC 20006 (310) 595-0800 The Court Reporter: CHANTAL M. GENEUS, RPR, CRR Certified Realtime Reporter Registered Professional Reporter United States District Court 333 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001 Proceedings reported by machine shorthand. Transcript produced by computer-aided transcription. 2 1 I N D E X 2 3 WITNESSES : PAGE 4 MANOUCHEHR MOHAMMADI 5 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. KLAYMAN 28 6 NASRIN MOHAMMADI 7 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. KLAYMAN 86 8 ROBERT JAMES WOOLSEY, JR., 9 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. KLAYMAN 114 10 KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN 11 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. KLAYMAN 122 12 NASRIN MOHAMMADI 13 DIRECT EXAMINATION (RESUMED) 160 14 BY MR. KLAYMAN 15 16 E X H I B I T S 17 PLF .S' NO . DESCRIPTION MARKED ADMITTED 18 1 Video of Akbar's body 63 19 2 Amnesty International report 96 98 20 3 Book entitled, "Ideas and Lashes " 111 113 21 by Akbar Mohammadi 22 5 Four photographs 145 147 23 4 Affidavit of Mr. Timmerman 153 153 24 25 Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (Whereupon, at 9:07 a.m. the proceedings 3 commenced and the following ensued:) 4 THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: Matter before the 5 Court, Civil Action Number 09-1289, Manouchehr 6 Mohammadi, et al. versus Islamic Republic of Iran, 7 et al. 8 Counsel, please come forward and identify 9 yourselves for the record. 10 MR. KLAYMAN: Thank you, Your Honor. Nice 11 to meet you. 12 THE COURT: Good morning, Mr. Klayman. Yes, 13 nice to see you in person. We've only had telephonic 14 conferences so far. 15 MR. KLAYMAN: I appreciate your 16 accommodating us on the dates. 17 THE COURT: Yes. 18 MR. KLAYMAN: This is Mr. Mohammadi sitting 19 on my left, and he's the plaintiff, and our 20 interpreter, Mr. Mohammad Moslehi, our translator. 21 THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: Your Honor, the 22 interpreter has been sworn. 23 THE COURT: Thank you. 24 So for the record, the interpreter has been 25 sworn in. Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 4 1 Is Mr. Mohammadi fairly fluent in English or 2 really not very fluent? 3 MR. KLAYMAN: Not very fluent. 4 THE COURT: I see. All right. 5 So, Mr. Klayman, thank you very much. I got 6 your bench memo this morning, which was a quick 7 turnaround, given my questions about jurisdictional 8 issues in this case. 9 So if you don't mind, I'd like to go through 10 some of my questions because your bench memo, while 11 helpful, didn't answer all of them. 12 So I'd like to start with that. 13 MR. KLAYMAN: Okay. 14 THE COURT: First, I just want to put on the 15 record at the beginning of this bench trial something 16 that we discussed at our telephonic conference about 17 the scope of the claims here -- 18 MR. KLAYMAN: Yes. 19 THE COURT: -- and make sure that my 20 understanding, based on that telephonic conference, is 21 correct that this case, although originally brought on 22 behalf of a class, is no longer being pursued as a 23 class action at all. The only plaintiffs who are 24 seeking any relief in this case are the four 25 plaintiffs named in the second amended complaint. Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 5 1 Am I correct on that? 2 MR. KLAYMAN: That is correct. Right. 3 THE COURT: Now, my next question has to do 4 with whether or not each of the four plaintiffs is 5 seeking relief under each of the four claims in the 6 second amended complaint. 7 MR. KLAYMAN: They are. 8 THE COURT: Including for assault and 9 battery? 10 MR. KLAYMAN: Yes. 11 THE COURT: Okay. So each of the four 12 plaintiffs are subject to assault and battery? It 13 wasn't clear from the complaint. 14 MR. KLAYMAN: They are actually still being 15 subjected to that. They are being threatened by 16 telephone, by Internet, with serious bodily injury, 17 and death. 18 They're activists. They're out there 19 speaking on behalf of the Iranian freedom movement. 20 So even to this day -- that's one of the things I put 21 into the memo this morning -- they continue to be 22 harassed, in effect, mentally tortured and harmed. 23 THE COURT: All right. Let me just ask you. 24 I mean, I saw it in the memo today. Is that the 25 second amended complaint allegation? Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 6 1 MR. KLAYMAN: Which allegation? 2 THE COURT: The allegation of continued 3 harassment, which was the term I think you used in 4 your bench memo. 5 MR. KLAYMAN: Yeah. I haven't gone through 6 that, Your Honor. I can go through it at lunchtime. 7 But certainly, either explicitly or implicitly, that 8 these acts continue. 9 We can just do this in English right now. 10 THE COURT: All right. 11 MR. KLAYMAN: And we have live testimony 12 with respect to that. 13 THE COURT: I've looked at the second 14 amended complaint, and there's no allegation that I 15 could see about this continuing once the plaintiffs 16 reached the United States. 17 You've also sought punitive damages, and I 18 have some concern about the scope of my authority to 19 provide for, you know, punitive damages. 20 So could you just explain to me what the 21 basis is for the plaintiffs being entitled to punitive 22 damages against all four defendants. 23 There are four defendants in the second 24 amended complaint, right? 25 MR. KLAYMAN: The same basis, Your Honor. Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 7 1 THE COURT: For, you know, in particular, 2 punitive damages on the common law claims? 3 MR. KLAYMAN: It would be the outrageous 4 nature of the behavior, extreme behavior. I can brief 5 this further, Your Honor. I did not look at that 6 today. 7 However, we have Judge Lamberth's recent 8 decisions with regard to the Foreign Sovereign 9 Immunity Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act, and he did 10 grant punitive damages to the defendants [sic], who 11 were in a similar position to our plaintiffs in this 12 case. So the punitives certainly are applicable under 13 the statutory claims. 14 THE COURT: Are you referring to the Bodoff 15 v. Iran case? 16 MR. KLAYMAN: The O'Brien versus Islamic 17 Republic of Iran , if Your Honor would like a copy. 18 THE COURT: No. I think I've got it here. 19 MR. KLAYMAN: That is one measure of 20 damages. And Judge Lamberth ordered a substantial 21 amount of punitive damages in that case. 22 THE COURT: All right. Well, let's now turn 23 to what our -- what are, to me, the more significant 24 subject matter jurisdictional issues here. 25 I understand from your bench memo that, Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 8 1 through your reference to, you know, the "FSIA, et 2 seq.," that you were also meaning to incorporate 3 Section 1605(a). 4 MR. KLAYMAN: Correct. 5 THE COURT: And in particular with 1605(a), 6 the state-sponsored terrorism provision requires for 7 this Court to exercise subject matter jurisdiction is 8 something that you have outlined. It's not paginated, 9 I guess. Page 4 -- 10 MR. KLAYMAN: I apologize. We did this 11 quickly traveling to DC. 12 THE COURT: No. I appreciate that. 13 Where you say on the top of the page: 14 "There are three requirements: One, state sponsor of 15 terrorism." 16 I don't think there's any question here that 17 that requirement is met in this case. 18 MR. KLAYMAN: Correct. 19 THE COURT: Second, the claimant is a 20 national of the United States, as you stated in your 21 bench memo. And, three, the foreign state is afforded 22 the opportunity to arbitrate. 23 Now, before going to the second requirement, 24 which I think is the one that is most troubling to me 25 here, let me just turn quickly to the arbitration, you Chantal M. Geneus , RPR , CRR , Official Court Reporter (202 ) 354 -3244 9 1 know, requirement. I guess it's your position that 2 the fact that you filed a complaint and received no -- 3 and served the complaint and summons on Iran here with 4 no response is sufficient to meet the requirement of 5 the arbitration -- 6 MR. KLAYMAN: Correct. 7 THE COURT: -- requirement? 8 MR. KLAYMAN: Correct. 9 THE COURT: And do you have case law on 10 that? 11 MR. KLAYMAN: Well, the same thing occurred 12 with regard to the Judge Lamberth decision, the 13 O'Brien case. There was no response at all.
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