EnglishThe following press release was distributed to media today.
WASHINGTON DC, February 2, 2025 – The international legal team representing Sara Saleem has filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against the Iraqi judge Faiq Zidan and a series of other senior government officials under the US Anti-Terrorism and Torture Victims Protection Acts, accusing them of “brutal acts of extortion, kidnapping, torture, and attempted murder.”
Saleem, a U.S. citizen, engineer, and foreign investor, was kidnapped and held for 43 days in captivity in 2014 by U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, which according to the complaint, were acting at the behest of former business partners, Nizar Hanna Nasri, Nameer Abdo Nasri, and Ramiz Nasri (the Hanna brothers), who were intent on stealing her share of a real estate development project.
Following Saleem’s dramatic escape from captivity, the terrorists were captured, tried, and jailed. But now, on February 6, a corrupt Iranian-backed judge is expected acquit the Hanna brothers and others in a rigged process.
“This suit, brought by the leading American law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, forges a new path in obtaining redress for victims of Iran’s stranglehold over important actors in the Iraqi system,” says Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, acting as co-counsel for Saleem’s international legal team. “It is time for the selling of judgements and corruption of the judiciary in Iraq to end. Dangerous, violent criminals should not be allowed to buy their acquittals with bribes.”
Amsterdam continued: “Chief Justice Faiq Zidane’s corruption is glaringly evident. At the same time that he issued a politically charged arrest warrant for President Trump, he is also trying to strip away everything that this woman has worked tirelessly to build. On February 6, he is attempting to rob her of what she has lawfully earned, using the criminal Hanna brothers as his instruments.”
“Sara Saleem is a Kurdish-American hero,» said Akiva Shapiro, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. «We are confident that justice will be served through the US court system to those who kidnapped and tortured her and have not relented in their campaign to target her for standing up for her rights and against corruption in Iraq.»
Saleem’s legal team says that lawsuit itself will be made available shortly for distribution inside Iraq.
Amsterdam & Partners LLP is an international law firm with offices in London and Washington DC. More information is available at www.amsterdamandpartners.com.
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