US court orders Iran to pay 9/11 survivors billions in damages

Though likely only symbolic, the ruling may ultimately help hold responsible for the attack other responsible parties, such as Saudi Arabia.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Iran’s government, central bank and Revolutionary Guard Corps to pay billions of dollars to parents, spouses, siblings and children of more than 1,000 people who died in the 9/11 attack that famously took down the two World Trade Center skyscrapers in 2001.

Judge George B. Daniels ruled that they must pay the survivors who filed the lawsuit $12.5 million per spouse, $8.5 million per parent, $8.5 million per child and $4.25 million per sibling killed. That sum, around $6 billion, could grow exponentially at a later date, as the judge said the plaintiffs may apply for punitive damages as well, according to the court documents obtained by ABC News.

Unfortunately, it is almost certainly a mostly symbolic victory, as there is no way to force Iran to pay; Tehran didn’t even bother showing up to court, leaving the judgement uncontested. There is only a small fund of seized Iranian assets that has been used in the past to partially compensate victims of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization, that could possibly be emptied.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2004, but was only allowed to go forward after Congress passed a law in 2016 enabling sovereign states to be held liable for acts of terrorism.

Daniels ruled in the survivors’ favor even though the official commission that investigated the multiple strikes found no direct evidence of Iranian support for the conspirators. On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers slammed two airplanes full of civilians into the Twin Towers in New York, crashed one into the Pentagon and one into the ground in Pennsylvania as passengers rushed the cockpit to prevent another attack.

According to the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Iran’s connection was already proven six years ago.

“In December 2011, a New York federal court held a hearing and found that the evidence presented established that Iran’s provision of material support to al-Qaeda was a cause of the 9/11 attacks and the resulting damage, injuries, and deaths,” said Robert Haefele in ABC’s report.

But the main alleged state actor that the plaintiffs are aiming at is the country most of the terrorists came from, and where al-Qaeda got its start – Saudi Arabia. Last month, Judge Daniels rejected an attempt by Riyadh to have that related lawsuit tossed out, and the court victory in this more tenuous case is therefore very encouraging for those who want to see the Sunni Arab state take responsibility for the largest single terror attack in history.