WASHINGTON (CN) - Iran and Syria owe $332 million to the family of a father and teenage son critically injured by a 2006 suicide bomb attack at a Tel Aviv restaurant, a federal judge ruled.
"When a state chooses to use terror as a policy tool - as Iran and Syria continue to do - that state forfeits its sovereign immunity and deserves unadorned condemnation," Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote.
The April 17, 2006, attack on Rosh Ha'ir restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel, killed 11 and wounded dozens of others. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an offshoot of the Hamas organization, sponsored the attack.
"PIJ is headquarted in Damascus, Syria, and has strong ties to Iran - which in turn has a close alliance with Syria," the court explained. "Funding for the PIJ comes from Iranian defendants which transfers it through Syrian defendants."
Yekutiel "Tuly" Wultz and his 16-year-old son Daniel Wultz were injured in the attack. Daniel died later after succumbing to his injuries.
The Wultzs sued Iran, Syria and each nation's intelligence and defense agencies, for allegedly funding and giving logistical support given to the terrorist group.
Last week Lamberth agreed that the Wultzes had proved their case.
"Based on the evidence presented by the expert witnesses at trial and the expert declarations submitted to the court, the court finds that PIJ received substantial logistical, financial, and technical support from both the Iranian and Syrian defendants," the 30-page ruling states.
He awarded more than $332 million compensatory and punitive damages to the family.
"This court hopes that Wultz family may take some measure of solace in this court's final judgment," Lamberth concluded.
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