A federal judge in New York on Thursday rejected an effort from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to dismiss a lawsuit from 9/11 terror attack survivors and victims’ families alleging that the nation assisted the hijackers within the lead up to the deadliest assault on US soil in its historical past.
US District Judge George Daniels discovered that the plaintiffs’ claims have been ample sufficient to enable the landmark civil case to go to trial and let the yearslong authorized battle proceed.
Plaintiffs within the lawsuit allege the federal government of Saudi Arabia had a job in backing an extremist assist community that assisted the hijackers within the US main up to the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied the go well with’s allegations.
Attorneys for the households at a listening to final yr laid out proof they mentioned revealed the assist community involving a number of high-ranking Saudi officers working within the US, which they are saying facilitated the hijackers’ actions throughout the nation.
Daniels wrote in his opinion that Saudi Arabia’s “attempts to offer seemingly innocent explanations or context” in response to the go well with’s allegations have been “either self-contradictory or not strong enough to overcome the inference that” the Kingdom had employed two people, Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, to help the hijackers within the lead up to the 9/11 assaults.
The plaintiffs have alleged in filings that Thumairy, a diplomat stationed within the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, was the principle designated contact particular person for al Qaeda and the hijackers in Los Angeles. They additionally declare that Thumairy labored intently with Bayoumi in orchestrating the assist system for the hijackers throughout their time in California earlier than their eventual transfer east.
Saudi Arabia has maintained that Bayoumi was a pupil devoutly concerned with a San Diego mosque whose congregants unknowingly helped the hijackers out of hospitality to the newcomers who didn’t communicate English.
Michael Kellogg, an lawyer for Saudi Arabia, argued on the listening to final yr that any help supplied by Bayoumi was “limited and wholly innocent.” Kellogg pinned his arguments on Bayoumi’s 2021 deposition, his interviews with regulation enforcement and conclusions from the 9/11 Commission report.
NCS has reached out to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for remark.
Terry Strada, the chair of 9/11 Families United, a coalition of victims’ households and survivors pursuing transparency, celebrated Daniels’ ruling in an announcement Thursday.
“Today’s decision is another powerful step toward justice,” he mentioned. “We are prepared to move forward and present the full scope of evidence in court, so that the truth is undeniable and justice is finally delivered.”
While 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, Saudi Arabia has constantly denied any authorities involvement within the assaults. The US has lengthy mentioned its strategic Middle East companion had no position and that al Qaeda acted by itself in hijacking 4 industrial airplanes and flying them into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. A fourth aircraft, United Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania.
But allegations of Saudi complicity have endured, and litigation in opposition to Saudi Arabia has developed within the final twenty years, finally being condensed into the present multi-district litigation.
Co-lead attorneys Jodi Westbrook Flowers and Donald Migliori of Motley Rice LLC, one of many companies representing plaintiffs within the case, additionally praised Daniels’ ruling in an announcement to NCS on Thursday.
“Today’s landmark decision in the September 11, 2001 case marks an important day for justice. The court concluded ‘the total evidence creates a high probability as to Bayoumi and Thumairy’s roles in the hijacker’s plans, and the related role of their employer [Saudi Arabia]’ and noted that a public trial will determine the rest,” the assertion mentioned.
NCS’s Kaanita Iyer and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.