UK High Court: Iran bank damages trial should proceed

The UK High Court rules that a trial filed by Iran’s Bank Mellat against the Treasury should proceed.

The court ruled that the $4-billion damages trial against the British Treasury should go ahead, after it rejected government attempts to delay the hearing, the Financial Times reported on Monday.       

Iran’s Bank Mellat is suing the British government over damages, resulting from loss of business and damage to its reputation, after successfully challenging the Treasury in the Supreme Court in 2014.

The Treasury was found to have violated the bank’s rights under the European Convention of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

The court’s ruling made history as it was the first hearing barring the public since the 2005.

In 2009, the Treasury imposed the sanctions according to which British financial institutions were prohibited from transacting business with the Iranian bank over alleged ties to Tehran’s nuclear program.

Also on Tuesday, negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 group of countries started a new round of talks on drafting the text of a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany -- reached a mutual understanding on the parameters of a comprehensive agreement over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 2.

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