WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- A U.S. court has awarded American journalist Shane Bauer a whopping $113 million in money seized from Iran by the U.S. sanctions regime.
Together with his ex-wife, Sarah Shourd, and their friend, Joshua Fattal, Bauer sued the Iranian government for millions in damages they claim to have incurred during their two year-long imprisonment in Tehran. 
The three Americans were arrested by Iranian soldiers near the border of the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2009. At the time, Bauer was studying in Damascus, Syria on a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored fellowship. Judge Leon ruled that “Iran is liable for false imprisonment,” and “for intentional infliction of severe emotional distress as to all plaintiffs.” 
Greyzone, an independent news website, carried the report on Friday, saying U.S. District Senior Judge Richard J. Leon had found Shane Bauer, his then girlfriend, now ex-wife, Sarah Shourd, and their friend, Joshua Fattal, entitled to receiving a the whopping fee, which has been misappropriated by the United States as part of Washington’s illegal sanctions against Tehran.
The trio was arrested by Iranian servicemen near Iran’s border with Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 2009 after trespassing into Iranian territory.
In 2011, an Iranian court sentenced Bauer and Fattal to a total of eight years in prison each after they were convicted of illegally crossing the country’s border and spying for the United States. The two each served a total of two years, while Shourd was granted a compassionate release from Iranian prison after 13 months of detention.
His, their lawyer’s, and the judge’s assertion of their entitlement to the sum comes while Bauer and his ex-wife were once staunch critics of the American sanctions, claiming that the money stolen as a result of the bans could be used towards benefiting Iranians, including by enabling purchase of medicine for patients.