A lawyer representing hundreds of victims’ relatives and injured survivors of the 9/11 attacks, along with insurance companies and businesses said the oil-kingdom cannot hide from “tons of allegations” against it.
“We have tons of allegations of what many Saudis and the country’s alter ego charities did. Saudi Arabia cannot hide from the facts,” said James Kreindler, a lawyer representing the wrongful death claimants on Tuesday, AP reported.
Additionally, the 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, a New Jersey-based group, said there is plenty of evidence against the Riyadh regime.
“It’s been almost 16 years since 9/11, and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to do everything possible to duck, dodge and distract from the overwhelming evidence that their government officials and agents aided and abetted these horrific attacks,” said Terry Strada, the group’s national chair.
He added that the US Congress made clear when it passed the law last year allowing the claims to go forward against Saudi Arabia that the Sept. 11 families and survivors “deserve their day in court and all of the Saudi’s high-priced lawyers, lobbyists and foreign agents in the world aren’t going to stop us.”
In September 2015, US District Judge George Daniels tossed Saudi Arabia out as a defendant.
One year later, however, the congress passed legislation, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), that eliminated some defenses and enabled the 9/11 victims to reassert their claims. Former president Barack Obama had then opposed the bill, arguing that it would make US officials targets to similar lawsuits around the world.
Of the 19 hijackers who allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks, 15 were Saudi nationals and available evidence suggests some of them were linked to high-ranking Saudi officials.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday asked to be dropped from the lawsuit victims’ families filed, saying no evidence links it to the deadly terrorist act.
Lawyers for Saudi Arabia made the request in papers filed in Manhattan federal court, saying lawyers for Sept. 11 families and survivors of the 2001 attack had failed repeatedly for the last 14 years to generate sufficient evidence to subject the US ally to the $100 billion lawsuit brought against numerous governmental and non-governmental defendants.
The lawyers said purported new evidence, like “the thousands of pages they unsuccessfully presented before,” is hearsay and speculation and is “insufficient to support the findings required for jurisdiction over Saudi Arabia.” They added that the plaintiffs had reached “grandiose conclusions” that far exaggerate the importance of “threadbare allegations and nonexistent evidence.”
