The Azadi Tower in Tehran
Washington: In response to the attack on author Salman Rushdie, the United States today designated the Iranian entity ‘15 Khordad Foundation’, a charitable foundation subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. Since 1989, the 15 Khordad Foundation, inspired by Iran’s former Supreme Leader late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s order calling for Rushdie’s execution, placed a bounty on the author’s life.
Before the attack, the Foundation had issued and subsequently increased a multi-million-dollar bounty on Rushdie’s life in support of Khomeini’s order calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989 following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses. As recently as 2012, the Foundation increased its bounty on the author, bringing the total sum from $2.7 million to $3.3 million. The Foundation’s leadership publicly advertised their offer, claiming the entire sum would be given immediately to anyone who assassinated Rushdie.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today, designating the Foundation for providing financial support “for an act of terrorism”.
In 1989, following the publication of The Satanic Verses, then-Iranian leader Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the author’s death, leading to attacks on Rushdie and those associated with him. The fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran’s current Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2017 and was republished by Iranian state-controlled media as recently as August 2022. 15 Khordad Foundation issued a bounty on Rushdie in support of Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa, and later, in 2012, increased the bounty. Several of Rushdie’s translators and business associates involved with the publication of The Satanic Verses in several countries have been killed or severely injured as a result of this incitement, as have dozens of innocent civilians. In 1991, the translator of The Satanic Verses into Japanese was assassinated in his office. Even people with no connection to the novel have been maimed or killed. In 1993, at least 37 people were killed when a mob burned down a hotel in Turkey that was hosting a writer who had translated Rushdie’s work.
“The infamous fatwa was intended to incite terrorism and violence, bring about the death of Rushdie and his associates, and intimidate others,” Antony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State, said.
The United States condemned such incitement and the attack on Rushdie in the strongest terms as a blatant assault on freedom of speech and an act of terrorism. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson stated today that the US “will not waver in its determination to stand up to threats posed by Iranian authorities against the universal rights of freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of the press”. “This act of violence, which has been praised by the Iranian regime, is appalling. We all hope for Salman Rushdie’s speedy recovery following the attack on his life,” he added.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the Foundation, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 per cent or more by it, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons, must be blocked and reported to OFAC. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or otherwise exempt. OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in the property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.
Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with the entity designated today entails the risk of secondary sanctions. OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on behalf of a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
“Today’s action is another clear signal that we will not stand by in the face of it,” Blinken said.
– global bihari bureau
