Iran ordered to pay $200M to B.C. mechanic tortured for dissent

A Canadian court has ordered the government of Iran to pay $200 million to a British Columbia mechanic who was branded an "infidel" and tortured by the regime for criticizing its rule.

In a decision obtained by Global News, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded $100 million in compensation and another $100 million in punitive damages to Zahed Haftlang, an Iranian refugee who fled to Canada in 2001 and now works as an auto mechanic in North Vancouver.

Justice Lee Akazaki wrote that Haftlang merited the unusually large sum because of the "years of mistreatment" and "lifetime of mental trauma" he suffered. While a single judgment might not deter Iran's abuses, the judge noted that the "accumulation of damage awards, often executed against Iran's frozen foreign assets, has some effect."

Although foreign governments are generally immune from Canada's civil courts, Justice Akazaki ruled that Iran's torture of Haftlang was motivated by the regime's politics, religion, and ideology — amounting to "terrorist activity" akin to staging attacks on foreign soil intended to silence opposition. As a result, Iran did not benefit from state immunity.

The decision stems from abuses committed in the 1990s. Haftlang was recruited into the Iranian military at age 13 during the Iran-Iraq War. After being captured and held prisoner by Iraqi forces, he was sent home — but Iranian authorities viewed him with suspicion. At his debriefing, he criticized the Iranian regime, prompting authorities to call him an infidel and imprison him.

During two years in captivity, Iranian police and prison guards beat him, placed objects in his rectum, attached objects to his genitals, electrocuted him, and left him with head trauma. After release in 1993, he worked on government-operated cargo ships. When he insulted Iran's Supreme Leader aboard the ship Iran Mazandaran, he again faced retaliation and torture.

This is the first time a Canadian court has found that terrorist activity included Iran's atrocities against its own citizens, potentially opening the door for many more such lawsuits against the regime.

Haftlang's lawyer, Mark Arnold, said it may be the largest sum ever awarded to an individual in Canada. An Ontario court earlier awarded $100 million in damages to the estates of six passengers killed when Iran shot down Ukraine Airlines flight 752 on January 8, 2020.

The case underscores Canada's commitment to holding foreign governments accountable for torture and human rights abuses against its citizens.