A federal judge on Monday held Iran responsible for the kidnapping of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, entering a default judgment against the Tehran regime on the 13th anniversary of his disappearance.
The decision from US District Judge Timothy Kelly was a milestone moment in the family's lawsuit against Tehran, which featured wrenching testimony in Washington's federal court from each of Levinson's seven children.
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"It is really important to the family that people realize what their father, their husband, has been through and what they've been through," said David McGee, a lawyer for the family. "It is a terrible ordeal."
In his 25-page ruling, Kelly found that Iran "in no uncertain terms" was responsible for Levinson's "hostage taking and torture" and entered a default judgment after the country declined to respond to the lawsuit. The family sought more than $1.5 billion in damages. Most of that amount was in punitive damages.
"He has been unable to see his children grow up, enjoy professional success, marry, and become parents themselves – as they have many times over," Kelly wrote in his judgment. "But they have not forgotten him, not by a long shot."
His daughters tied photographs of him to their bouquets on their wedding day, the judge said, and one named a son after him.
Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007, when he was scheduled to meet a source on the Iranian island of Kish. For years, US officials would only say that Levinson was working independently on a private investigation.
But a 2013 Associated Press investigation revealed that Levinson had in fact been sent on a mission by CIA analysts who had no authority to run such an operation.
The family received proof-of-life photos and a video in late 2010 and early 2011, but his whereabouts and fate are not known. In November, the Iranian government unexpectedly responded to a United Nations query by saying that Levinson was the subject of an "open case" in Iranian Revolutionary Court. Though the development gave the family a burst of hope, Iran clarified that the "open case" was an investigation into his disappearance.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday that the US would continue working to free Levinson and other hostages held by Iran.
The next step in the lawsuit will be the appointment of a special master to assess damages for individual family members and make a recommendation to the court. There are multiple sources of money the family can look to draw from to collect the damages, including Iran's own assets.
