Iran-U.S. artifact wrangling deepens

CHICAGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- A Chicago judge ordered Iran to have an expert testify under oath in the legal wrangling over ownership of ancient Persian clay tablets.

The battle over some 300 tablets at the University of Chicago began in 1997 when relatives of victims of a terror bombing in Jerusalem sued Iran and later won in 2003. The $409 million suit alleged Iran trained the terrorists but Iran refused to pay. Lawyers then sought to sell the tablets to recover the damages, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning ruled on Iran's appeal that the country must provide an expert willing to testify under oath as to ownership of the 2,500-year-old tablets.

Wednesday, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency called Manning's 2003 ruling against Iran a "forged story."

Manning rejected Iran's contention that it is exempt from the U.S. statute governing depositions.

There was no immediate response on the ruling from Tehran or the Rhode Island law firm it hired last year.