First court hearing held over first US-Israeli war on Iran as 352,983 people seek justice

The first court hearing into a lawsuit filed by families of victims of the 12-Day War waged by the United States and Israel against Iran in June 2025 was held Sunday morning at the Imam Khomeini Judicial Complex in Tehran.

The hearing was presided over by Judge Majid Hosseinzadeh and attended by Hassan Abdolianpour, head of the Judiciary’s Center for Lawyers, Official Experts and Family Counselors, along with the plaintiffs and their lawyers.

The case involves 352,983 Iranian citizens who have filed more than 110 lawsuits over material and moral damages caused by US-Israeli assaults on Iran during the 12-Day War and subsequent actions by the United States and Israel.

The plaintiffs are seeking compensation from the US government, senior Israeli officials, and other individuals and legal entities linked to the acts of aggression. The lawsuits also seek to punish those responsible and create a deterrent against the recurrence of such acts.

In June 2025, Israel, joined by the United States, launched the first round of aggression against Iran, striking three Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The war, which lasted for 12 days, was met with Iran's decisive military response.

At the opening of the hearing, Hosseinzadeh said the plaintiffs had brought their cases over “the damage, harm, and moral losses resulting from the aggression against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the 12-day war of aggression and their subsequent actions.”

He said that the right to seek justice is “a certain, fundamental and inalienable right” of all Iranians.

The judge cited several Iranian laws as the legal basis for domestic courts to hear the cases. He said Article 1 of the Law on the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Hear Civil Lawsuits against Foreign States allows Iranian courts to exercise jurisdiction on the basis of reciprocal treatment, given repeated violations of the judicial immunity of the Iranian government and officials by US courts.

Iran: US and Israel guilty of gravest war crimes since 1949

Iran has denounced the US and Israel for committing some of the most severe violations of international humanitarian law in modern history through their ongoing military aggression against the Islamic Republic.

According to Hosseinzadeh, provisions of the 2016 law requiring the government to pursue compensation for damages resulting from US actions and crimes, as well as the 1989 law on intensifying countermeasures against US terrorist actions, oblige the Judiciary to pursue the rights of Iranians harmed by US actions in the region.

He also referred to the Civil Liability Law, saying it provides for lawsuits seeking compensation for moral damages arising from aggressive acts against Iran’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

The judge further said that under a 2017 law addressing US human rights violations and adventurous and terrorist actions in the region, US military and intelligence institutions are considered terrorist entities and the attacks fall under the relevant provisions.

Hosseinzadeh said the central issue before the court is the violation of Iran’s territorial integrity and sovereignty during the 12-Day War, as well as subsequent unlawful actions by Israel and the United States, adding that the details and supporting documents had been formally recorded in the court proceedings.

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