Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Shurat HaDin warns UK satellite services operator over Iran deals.



Shurat HaDin warns UK satellite services operator over Iran deals.(JPost).A Tel Aviv-based civil rights group warned on Wednesday that satellite operator Inmarsat could face criminal prosecution if it continues providing its technology to Iranian oil tankers.
  In a letter to Inmarsat, Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center) said the company could risk civil as well as criminal proceedings in US courts if it did not stop supplying its guidance services to Iranian military vessels and tankers.
Shurat HaDin's director, and civil rights activist, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the warning letter came in the wake of recent US Treasury Department sanctions against Iranian vessels.The sanctions, imposed earlier this month, identify by name 58 National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) vessels. The US Treasury Department said that identifying the vessels would help companies and individuals comply with sanctions against Iran and undermine Iran's attempts to use NITC front companies to evade sanctions. Twenty-eight of the vessels named by the US Treasury Department appear on Inmarsat's shipping directory as being in receipt of the company's services. Ahead of EU oil sanctions, NITC 'reflagged' - registered in other countries - a large number of its vessels to mask their ownership, and so evade sanctions. Many of the ships listed on the US Treasury Department's list have been reflagged in countries including Tuvalu in the South Pacific. However, Shurat HaDin said that this does not affect their legal liability under US sanctions, because the ships are either under Iranian control or primarily dedicated to supporting Iran.In its letter to Inmarsat, Shurat HaDin say that providing aid to Iran is illegal. By materially supporting Iran's oil industry, Shurat HaDin allege, Inmarsat is facilitating the Iranian regime, including its nuclear program. "To the extent that Inmarsat's satellite support is utilized by Iran's military agencies, Inmarsat is a direct participator in Iran's terrorist activities and nuclear weapons program," the letter reads. Shurat HaDin cite a recent ruling by the US Supreme Court in the Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project case, which held that providing any support to a terrorist organization, even for supposed humanitarian purposes, was sufficient to impose criminal liability. "The analysis in Holder is no less accurate or binding when applied to the business activities of a sophisticated sovereign entity that orchestrates terrorist operations globally," Shurat HaDin argue in their letter to Inmarsat.Read the full story here.

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