Compensation for hostages held 444 days in Iran appears near

WASHINGTON – It has been more than 30 years since the Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran came home, and they have tried in vain since then to win compensation for their suffering.

"Iran has never been held to account in any way whatsoever for having violated every tenet of international law for all of those 444 days," said Kevin Hermening, a former Marine embassy guard who at age 20 was the youngest hostage taken in 1979.

But a long legal and legislative battle may now be nearing an end. A Senate committee last week endorsed a remedy that could pay each of the surviving hostages $6,750 for every day they were held, or roughly $3 million each.

The money would not come from the Iranian government, which has proved an impossible legal target. Instead, it could come from fines and penalties paid by companies that did business illegally with Iran in violation of sanctions.

"This is a major breakthrough," attorney Tom Lankford said of a proposal that has been negotiated with the U.S. State Department. "We've got many people who are elderly and ailing and very, very ill, and we're hopeful something is done very, very promptly."

There were 53 Americans held hostage (52 were held for 444 days and one was released earlier). Thirty-eight are still alive, including L. Bruce Laingen, a Minnesota native who was the highest ranking U.S. official held hostage.

After beatings, mock executions and prolonged imprisonment in Tehran, many of the hostages and their families had trouble resuming normal lives.

The legal travails of American victims of terrorism have played out in a legal and diplomatic thicket in recent decades. Years ago, Congress passed a law making it possible for victims of state-sponsored terrorism to sue those states for damages. Many victims have won in court, though not all of them have received compensation.

The Iran hostages have always faced a unique barrier: the U.S. agreement with Iran that led to the captives' 1981 release, known as the Algiers Accords, prohibits the former hostages from seeking damages from Iran.