It’s rather hard to believe that the empty red-brick backsplit house on Sheppard Ave. W. with the overgrown grass and damaged roof finds itself at the centre of an international showdown.

And yet, a Toronto judge ruled earlier this year that the house, along with a commercial building in Ottawa, is “beneficially owned” by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and can be seized by victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism.

The ruling, which also named as defendants the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, is just one of several cases slowly moving through Canadian and American courts, demanding damages for bombings and kidnappings dating back more than 20 years throughout the Middle East that have been linked to Iran.

Although it did not participate in any of the proceedings leading up to the March 17 ruling by Superior Court Justice David M. Brown, Iran is now fighting back and has retained Toronto lawyer Colin Stevenson.

The Iranian government maintains that the house at 290 Sheppard Ave. W. in north Toronto and the building at 2 Robinson Ave. in Ottawa are legally owned by active corporations, and that there is no evidence they were held in trust for Iran, Stevenson told the Star. He said Iran will argue state immunity. The next court dates are scheduled for December.

There was no answer at 290 Sheppard when the Star visited last week. The blinds had been drawn and there were no cars in the driveway. When asked who owned the house, neighbour Yitzhak Lewin said it was “owned by the Ayatollah. Everybody knows that.”

He said the house has been essentially empty for several years, but he occasionally sees a man go in late at night. “I used to see some people there, but they seemed very subdued, very secretive,” he said.

The house was once known as the Center for Iranian Studies, and its now-defunct website said it was a non-government organization supporting those interested in Iranian culture.

But in 2010, eight prominent Iranian academics in Toronto demanded in an open letter to know what took place at the centre and who was funding its activities. They said it was really a front for the Iranian government. The house was sparsely furnished when the Star visited in 2010.

Property records show the building was purchased in 2005 for $827,000 by Farhangeiran Inc., whose sole director listed in the corporate registry is Fazel Larijani. A former cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, Larijani is part of a powerful Iranian family, whose brothers have served as Speaker of the Iranian parliament and head of the judiciary.

The Ottawa building was purchased for $1.6 million in 1998 by Fatima Cultural Activities, and transferred to the Mobin Foundation in 2001, property records show. The sole director of the foundation listed in the corporate registry is Seyed Adeli, a former Iranian ambassador to Canada.

Iran has used so-called cultural centres to promote pro-Iranian regime interests abroad, said Farrokh Zandi, a York University professor and former president of the Iranian-Canadian Congress. He said some who have fled Iran worry their old government is spying on them through such centres.

“The major concern is that somebody is watching over them,” said Zandi.

Iran has had no official diplomatic ties with Canada since September 2012, when its mission was expelled by the Canadian government. Neighbours of 290 Sheppard say it is also around that time that they started seeing less movement next door.

What is particularly intriguing is that the plaintiffs in this Canadian case are American — they are the legal guardians and family members of Edward Tracy and Joseph Cicippio, two men kidnapped by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s who spent several traumatic years in captivity.

Tracy received $18.5 million through the American courts about 10 years ago, while Cicippio’s relatives were awarded $91 million by a U.S. judge for the emotional distress caused by his kidnapping.

In a bid to collect what the court said they were owed, the plaintiffs moved their case north of the border, which is possible under Canada’s Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, passed in 2012.

The act calls on Canadian judges to recognize the judgment of a foreign court that finds in favour of victims of state-sponsored terrorism. That led to this past March’s ruling, which also ordered the seizure of assets in two Canadian bank accounts linked to Iran.

Toronto lawyer John Adair, who represents the Tracy and Cicippio plaintiffs, said Iran has a history of only bringing in lawyers once victims take steps to enforce courts’ seizure orders.

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“Certainly one of our arguments is going to be: Where have you been in all of this?” he said.

The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act brings “international politics into the court system a lot more than what would otherwise be possible,” said Osgoode Hall law professor Gus Van Harten.

It raises the concern that there will be no assets left to seize for future victims of terrorism, particularly Canadians, he added.

Another case, brought by Vancouver dentist Sherri Wise, who was injured in a bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 carried out by Iran-backed Hamas, is moving through the courts in British Columbia. The Ontario Court of Appeal gave Wise the right last year to join another Ontario case involving the family of an American terrorism victim, Marla Bennett, as an intervener. She declined through her lawyer to comment on the proceedings.

With files from San Grewal

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