PHILADELPHIA – October 8, 2015 – The Middle East Forum’s Legal Project announces a victory over Tehran’s unofficial American lobby, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
The Legal Project helped fund the legal case that culminated in the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals upholding a $183,480.09 sanction penalty against NIAC.
The sanctions arose from NIAC’s predatory defamation suit against Iranian-American blogger Hassan Daioleslam for his investigatory research exposing NIAC’s ties to the Iranian regime.
That suit was dismissed with Legal Project assistance, after the U.S. District Court found that the work of NIAC president and founder Trita Parsi was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iranian] regime.”
The District Court also imposed sanctions against NIAC for its bad behavior during the discovery process. The Appeals Court upheld most of the sanctions, concluding NIAC “engaged in a disturbing pattern of delay and intransigence” which harmed Mr. Daioleslam’s ability to defend himself.
The Forum’s Legal Project has now received $49,155.54 of this sanction penalty, after Mr. Daioleslam and his pro-bono attorneys were reimbursed for their expenses.
“The Middle East Forum will use these funds in 2016 to show how NIAC is a danger to America,” said Middle East Forum counselor Marc Fink. “The predatory lawsuit NIAC launched to silence Mr. Daioleslam actually had the opposite effect: not only did discovery documents expose NIAC’s inner workings and machinations but we now have funds dedicated further to expose NIAC.”
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The Legal Project protects the right in the West to freely discuss Islam, radical Islam, terrorism and terrorist funding. Its offers a lifeline to individuals and organizations whose freedom of public speech about these topics is threatened.
The Middle East Forum promotes American interests through intellectual, activist, and philanthropic efforts.
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Marc Fink
