US court clears Saudi Arabia from charges of involvement in the attacks
An American judge has ordered the Islamic Republic of Iran to pay more than 10 billion dollars in damages in the 9/11 case. The money is to be paid to the families of people who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The same judge cleared Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 case.
The default judgment that blames Iran was issued on Wednesday by the New York’s District judge George Daniels. As per the ruling, Iran has been ordered to pay 7.5 billion dollars to the victims’ families in the 9/11 case, 2 million dollars to the estate of every victim as compensation for the pain and suffering, and 6.88 million dollars have been awarded in punitive damages.
All the insurers who have to pay for the damage to the property, and had claimed that their work had been suspended or interrupted, were also awarded 3 billion dollars in damages.
The ruling in the 9/11 case is important because not a single one of the nineteen hijackers on 11th September was an Iranian citizen. Fifteen belonged to Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Lebanon and one from Egypt.
The judgment cleared Saudi Arabia from the obligation of paying billions of dollars to the victims in 9/11 case after the ruling judge dismissed the allegations that it had provided support to the terrorists.
The judge also ruled that Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity. The attorneys representing the monarchy had presented the argument that there was no evidence to the fact that their client had direct links to the terrorists or their supporters.
Responding to the ruling, an aide to Iran’s parliamentary speaker called it “absurd and ridiculous.” He said:
“I never heard about this ruling and I’m very much surprised because the judge had no reason whatsoever to issue such a ruling… Iran never took part in any court hearings related to the events of September 11, 200.
The aide also denied Iran’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks. It had also not taken part in the hearings related to the 9/11 case. The decision may have been the result of the lack of Iranian participation. Usually, the default judgment is issued when one of the parties in a case fails to respond to the summons of the court.
Iran had failed to defend itself in Judge Daniel’s court even though it was accused of involvement in the attacks. Iran, on the other hand, believed that the lawsuit was absurd since there was no proven link between the Islamic republic and the attackers.
The 9/11 commission report had revealed that some of the Islamic terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks had been through Iran. The report also stated that Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, had also provided training and advice to several Al Qaeda operatives.
It is still not clear how the 9/11 case will move forward after this latest development. It is very difficult to actually obtain damages from a third country, however, Iran’s frozen funds in the US may be used to pay the money.
