Terrorism financing lawsuit against Arab Bank remains on track for late 2011 trial
In on-going anti-terrorism litigation, Jordan's Arab Bank faces allegations from both American and international terrorism victims who claim that the bank knowingly served as an outlet through which terrorist organizations distributed "martyr payments" to families of suicide bombers and that the bank provided financial and other support to these organizations, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
On Tuesday, July 13, 2010, Judge Nina Gershon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued sanctions against Arab Bank, stating that the jury "will be instructed that, based on the defendant's failure to produce documents, it may, but is not required to, infer that the defendant provided financial services to organizations designated by the United States as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and to individuals affiliated with the FTOs."
In response to the sanctions, Motley Rice attorney Mike Elsner, who is representing the plaintiffs, said that "this ruling merely restores the evidentiary balance that was lost because the bank withheld documents."A trial date is anticipated for late 2011, and the plaintiffs currently plan to focus on Arab Bank's alleged liability involving two dozen terrorist acts in Israel and the occupied territories that injured U.S. citizens.
Read more about the Arab Bank lawsuit in a full article featured in American Lawyer.