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Federal judge orders Sudan funds unfrozen to compensate USS Cole victims' families

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A lawyer for the relatives of 17 sailors killed in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole said Tuesday that the families will receive compensation from the Sudan government after a judge for the US District Court of the Southern District of New York ordered last week that banks release $13.4 million in previously blocked funds. The Terrorism Recovery Insurance Act of 2002 allows judges to unblock funds where judgments have been rendered against terrorist states. Sudan denies any involvement in the bombing. Family members will receive pecuniary damages under the Death on the High Seas Act, but the act does not allow them to recover punitive damages. The lawyer for the families said each family will receive between $200,000 and $1.2 million. The families also plan to seek punitive damages of up to $50 million under the Justice for State Sponsored Terrorism Act passed last year according to their lawyer. In 2007, the government of Sudan announced plans to appeal the original judgment of nearly $8 million, arguing that as a sovereign nation it was not subject to US Courts and denying any role in the bombing. A judge for the US Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found Sudan liable in 2007 for the bombing after previously rejecting a motion by Sudan to dismiss the suit. The court originally allowed the suit in 2005.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).