美政府共向恐怖主義受害者支付數億美元賠償

The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it has paid out more than $800 million from a Congressionally-created fund to compensate thousands of American victims of international terrorist acts dating back decades.

Among the 2,332 claimants were Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981 as well as victims of the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund was set up by Congress in 2015 and is administered by the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Congress authorized the department to deposit into the fund certain forfeiture proceeds, penalties and fines that come from civil and criminal matters involving prohibited transactions with state sponsors of terrorism.

Congress originally appropriated $1.025 billion for payments to victims, and recent Justice Department prosecutions and U.S. government enforcement actions have increased the total available for initial payments to more than $1.1 billion, the statement said.

“Through this program, we will continue to be resolute in our commitment to victims of state sponsored terrorism and aggressively search for illicit funds and assets to compensate them for their losses,” Acting Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Division Kenneth Blanco said in a statement.美國司法部週四表示，已經從國會創建的基金中支付了8億多美元，用於賠償過去數十年來在國際恐怖主義行爲中受害的數千名美國人。

司法部在一份聲明中表示，在2,332名得到賠償的人中，有在1979到1981年被伊朗扣爲人質的美國人，以及1998年基地組織對美國駐肯尼亞和坦桑尼亞大使館發動爆炸襲擊的受害者。

美國的國家恐怖主義受害者基金會是國會在2015年設立的，由司法部的刑事部門管理。國會授權司法部向該基金會存入在與國家支持的恐怖主義民事和刑事案件有關的被禁交易中一些被沒收的收益和罰款。

聲明說，國會最初撥款十億零二千五百萬美元用於支付受害人，最近司法部的訴訟和美國政府的執法行動將最初付款總額增加到超過11億美元。

代理助理司法部長肯尼思·布蘭科在一份聲明中表示：“通過這一計劃，我們將繼續堅定致力於幫助國家支持的恐怖主義受害者，並積極尋找非法資金和資產來彌補他們的損失。“