Sudan asks US court to dismiss lawsuit over Cole bombing
May 24, 2006 (RICHMOND, Virginia) — A lawyer for the government of Sudan on Wednesday urged a US federal appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the families of the 17 sailors killed in an al-Qaida terrorist attack on the USS Cole.
The families allege that the Sudanese government provided support, including money and training, that allowed al-Qaida to attack the destroyer in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000.
Knox Bemis, a lawyer for Sudan, told a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the lawsuit should be thrown out because it does not directly connect the East African nation’s alleged support of al-Qaida to the bombing.
The families’ attorney, Andrew C. Hall, argued that such specifics do not have to be established until the case goes to trial.
Bemis “suggests you’ve got to get into evidentiary detail,” Hall said. “That’s not so. We’ve more than met our burden.”
Sudan is appealing a decision by U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar to allow the lawsuit to go forward. The families are seeking $105 million (A81.71 million), which Hall said could be paid through Sudanese assets frozen by the U.S. government.
Foreign nations ordinarily are immune from suit in U.S. courts, but Congress amended the law in 1996 to allow victims to seek monetary damages against countries classified as state sponsors of terrorism. More than 50 relatives of the Cole victims brought the lawsuit under that “terrorism exception.”
The lawsuit alleges that al-Qaida operated training camps in Sudan and that the country allowed an operative of the global terror network to ship four crates of explosives to Yemen before the bombing. It also accuses Sudan’s president of authorizing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s entry into the country and of not requiring him to pay taxes.
According to the complaint, bin Laden and Sudan also operated joint businesses and a bank that provided financing for the Cole attack.
Several relatives of victims attended the hearing and spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.
“Seventeen families have been devastated just as badly as the 9/11 families have,” said Saundra Flanagan, whose son Kevin Shawn Rux was killed in the attack. “We want people to remember.”
The appeals court usually rules several weeks after hearing oral arguments.
Sudan once harbored bin Laden, but he was thrown out of the country by the authorities in 1996, under U.S. pressure, and moved his base of operations to Afghanistan.
In a report on worldwide terrorism last month, the U.S. State Department continues to list Sudan among six countries classified as state sponsors of terror, but credits Sudan’s Islamic government with taking significant steps to cooperate in the global war on terror.
The State Department report said, “There is no indication that al-Qaida elements have had a presence in Sudan with the knowledge and consent of the Sudanese Government for at least the past five years.”
(ST/AP)