Iran Escapes Liability for Soldier's Torture, Hostage Claims

A U.S. citizen conscripted into the Iranian army to fight in the Iran-Iraq War failed to show that he was taken hostage or faced mistreatment meeting the legal definition of torture, and so sovereign immunity blocks his lawsuit against the Iranian regime, the D.C. Circuit said Tuesday.

Darioush Radmanesh was born to an Iranian father and an American mother. The family was living in Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Radmanesh alleges his father was summarily convicted of treason, and the family was threatened with execution unless they remained in the country and his father trained Iranians to ...