Following a U.S. bill that would allow the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the Gulf country, the first lawsuit has been filed against Saudi Arabia. Stephanie DeSimone, who was two months pregnant when her husband was killed in the Pentagon, filed the court documents on Friday in Washington, D.C., claiming that Saudi Arabia was "partially" responsible for her husband's death, as CNN reported on Saturday.
According to the document, Saudi Arabia allegedly provided financial and material support to al-Qaida through agents and purported charities and was aware of the plan as it provided logistical support to carry out the attack.
"Absent the support provided by the Kingdom, al-Qaida would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan, and execute the Sept. 11 attacks," the documents stated.
Congress on Wednesday overwhelming voted to pass the law, overturning President Barack Obama's veto. Before the law, American victims of terrorist acts could only sue countries designated by the U.S. State Department as state-sponsors of terrorism, currently Iran, Syria and Sudan.
Now, any country can be sued if there are allegations of support for known terrorists that carry out attacks on U.S. soil. Existing tort law requires plaintiffs to prove that the support played a "substantial factor" in the victims' injury, a high bar, said Jimmy Gurule, an expert in international criminal law at the University of Notre Dame, as reported by Reuters news agency.
Relatives of the victims of the 2001 attacks, in which hijackers crashed planes in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, have long sought to sue Saudi Arabia, claiming links between the kingdom and al-Qaida.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said earlier this week that the bill was a "source of big concern." "Weakening sovereign immunity will have a negative impact on all nations, including the United States," the ministry said in a statement, according to the official Saudi news agency SPA.
But even under the new law, the White House can still request a court to halt this and other potential lawsuits. The law allows a court to put a proceeding against a foreign state on hold if the United States says it "is engaged in good faith discussions" with the country to resolve the claims.
The stay provision and other changes were added to address concerns raised by the White House, Saudi Arabia and companies like General Electric and Dow Chemical Co.
In opposing the law, U.S. President Barack Obama said it would harm U.S. interests by undermining the principle of sovereign immunity, opening up the U.S. to private lawsuits over its military missions abroad.
The erosion of sovereign immunity is also a concern among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member. Saudi Arabia's Gulf allies have lined up beside Riyadh to criticize the legislation. Late on Thursday, United Arab Emirates foreign minister Anwar Gargash described the move as "a dangerous precedent in international law that undermines the principle of sovereign immunity and the future of sovereign investments" in the U.S.
