Families to sue over Iran deaths
In this file photo, an Iranian police stands guard outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran. (AFP)
ARAB NEWS
Published — Saturday 13 June 2015
Last update 13 June 2015 1:22 am
QATIF: The Saudi Consulate in Iran plans to launch lawsuits on Sunday seeking compensation for the deaths and injuries suffered by citizens from inhaling poisonous insecticide in a hotel in Iran earlier this week.
Four children died and 36 were injured by the chemical phosphine apparently used during the fumigation of the hotel in Mashhad, in the northwest of the country.
Abdullah Yahya Al-Hamrani, Saudi deputy consul in Iran, said that the families of the victims had asked the consulate to handle their legal affairs, which would include seeking blood money and other compensation.
Al-Hamrani said the consulate has already been able to get agreements on compensation for five Saudi citizens. These were concluded through diplomatic channels, he said.
Al-Hamrani said the families wanted their children buried at a graveyard in Mashhad.
Deema Al-Fakher, 13, her brother Hassan Abdulghani, three, Haidar Ali Qassim Al-Marhoon, five, and six-month-old Hassan Ali Al-Awami, were buried on Thursday next to Imam Ali bin Musa Al-Ridha. Hundreds of Saudi and Iranian citizens attended the burial.
Sheikh Hassan Al-Sammar from Saudi Arabia led the funeral prayers. Family and friends of the deceased were invited to a hall at the Imam Al-Ridha Mosque complex, where they received condolences from the public.
The Saudi families claimed that the chemical had reached their rooms through the air-conditioning system last Sunday.
They had complained to the hotel management about a foul smell in their rooms but were initially told it was an odor coming from the hotel kitchen.
Tests later showed that the chemical was present in their bodies. The hotel’s manager and four workers were subsequently arrested.
The Iranian authorities have said there may be a possibility that the Saudis were deliberately poisoned, but that an investigation was under way to determine this.
Osama Nugali, head of media at the Foreign Ministry, said that Iranian ambassador in Riyadh, Hussein Sadiqi, was asked to cooperate with the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad to help the victims.
Families to sue over Iran deaths | Arab News
I wonder what penalty (if any) those criminals will receive for killing 4 innocent children, among them 1 infant. In any case a tragic event that occurred in the middle of a ugly proxy war.