Former Hostage Sues Iran

Former hostage Terry Anderson filed a $100 million lawsuit against Iran on Monday for allegedly financing and directing the terrorists who kept him shackled and blindfolded for nearly seven years.

Anderson, former chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was taken captive in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 16, 1985, as he returned from a morning tennis game. His Hezbollah captors shuttled Anderson between stuffy rooms, beat and berated him and taunted him with the false hope of release, his lawsuit says.

"During the entire period of his captivity, Anderson saw the sun once," the suit says.

Anderson became so depressed he banged his head against a wall until he bled and continued to suffer problems related to depression after his release in December 1991,court papers say. He and his family are asking for $100 million compensation plus unspecified punitive damages.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran provides material support and resources" to Hezbollah, and provided the group with "funding, direction and training for its terrorist activities in Lebanon," the suit alleges.

The action, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, is similar to claims filed by other Americans held hostage in Lebanon during the 1980s. Iran has not paid a penny in damages awarded to other hostages, or to the family of an American student killed in a bus bombing in Israel.

Iran denies it sponsored Hezbollah and claims American courts have no jurisdiction over foreign countries.