Stethem v. Islamic Republic of Iran

Robert Stethem and seven other members of the United States military (plaintiffs) were passengers on a 1985 flight from Athens to Rome. The flight was hijacked by an Iranian paramilitary group known as Hizballah. All eight military servicemembers were beaten for the next 16 hours until the aircraft landed in Beirut. There, Stethem was shot in the head, and the other seven servicemembers were turned over to Amal, a Lebanese militia group that had hired Hizballah to perform the hijacking. The seven servicemembers continued to be mentally and physically tortured, not knowing whether death was imminent or how long their captivity would last. The United States was unable to negotiate a release directly from the captors. However, when the Iranian president told the captors to release the servicemembers, which occurred approximately two weeks after the hijacking, the servicemembers were released. The servicemembers and their families (plaintiffs) filed a lawsuit in United States federal court against the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) and its Ministry of Information and Security (ministry) (defendants). Evidence established that (1) Iran, through the ministry, recruited, trained, and financially supported Hizballah; (2) the United States had designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984, a year before the incident; (3) the servicemembers and their relatives were United States citizens; (4) the servicemembers and their relatives had each suffered compensable damages ranging from $200,000 to $5 million, for a total of approximately $29 million; and (5) the ministry’s annual budget for supporting terrorism was approximately $100 million.