A US judge on Tuesday dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks, who accused the country of providing material support to al-Qaeda.
US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan said Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity from damage claims by families of the victims, and from insurers that covered losses suffered by building owners and businesses.
“The allegations in the complaint alone do not provide this court with a basis to assert jurisdiction over defendants,” Daniels wrote.
The victims had sought to supplement their lawsuit with new allegations to avoid that result, including based on testimony they secured from Zacarias Moussaoui, a imprisoned former al-Qaeda operative.
Daniels said even if he allowed the plaintiffs to assert those new claims, doing so would be “futile, however, because the additional allegations do not strip defendants of sovereign immunity.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would appeal.
The case against Saudi Arabia has had a complicated history, with trial judges including Daniels twice before ruling that Saudi Arabia was entitled to immunity under the federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
But in 2013, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York revived the lawsuit, in light of a 2011 decision that allowed similar claims to proceed against Afghanistan.
