A federal judge on Thursday allowed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia by families of 9/11 victims to proceed, marking a blow to the country’s efforts to block legal proceedings alleging it helped carry out the deadly terrorist attack.
United States District Judge George Daniels in the Southern District of New York rejected the Saudi government’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, writing in an order that plaintiffs have “reasonable evidence” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used two Saudi men to “assist the hijackers.” Omar al Bayoumi and Fahad al Thumairy are named in the lawsuit as links to the radical Islamic al Qaeda hijackers who rammed planes into New York City’s two World Trade Center towers over two decades ago, killing nearly 3,000 people.
“Plaintiffs have managed to provide this Court with reasonable evidence as to the roles played by Bayoumi, Thumairy, and KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia], in assisting the hijackers. KSA did not proffer sufficient evidence to the contrary,” Daniels wrote Thursday. “Although KSA attempts to offer seemingly innocent explanations or context, they are either self-contradictory or not strong enough to overcome the inference that KSA had employed Bayoumi and Thumairy to assist the hijackers.”
Although the Saudi government’s lawyers argued that “Bayoumi’s encounters with the hijackers were coincidences,” among other attempts to dismiss the case, Daniels wrote that Saudi Arabia’s rebuttals “are all either conclusory attorney speculations not grounded in facts, or self-serving denials or excuses from Bayoumi himself that do not withstand scrutiny.”
Daniels said his decision to allow the case to proceed centered on jurisdictional arguments rather than the merits of the claims against Saudi Arabia. The country had previously argued that it is immune from civil litigation in American courts as a sovereign state.
A law passed by Congress in 2016, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, has also helped the case to proceed, as it permitted victims of terrorist attacks to sue foreigners if they provided material support to the attackers and handed U.S. courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed over injuries and deaths in attacks on U.S. soil.
Families of 9/11 victims called the judge’s decision on Thursday denying Saudi Arabia’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit “the most consequential step yet” in two decades of litigation in comments to ABC News.
SENATORS DEMAND UNREDACTED 9/11 DOCUMENTS ON SAUDI ROLE IN ATTACKS
“Nearly a quarter-century after we lost our loved ones, Judge Daniels’ ruling gives us the chance to finally pursue accountability, justice, and closure in their memory,” said Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, a coalition of 9/11 families.
“We have presented overwhelming evidence that the Kingdom is complicit in the 9/11 attacks, and a federal judge agrees,” Eagleson said. “Now, we are prepared to present even more evidence showing that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.”