District judge says victims cannot seize bank\u2019s assets since the US has not recognised the Taliban as a legitimate government.
\nA United States judge has ruled that family members of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are not entitled to funds from Afghanistan\u2019s central bank.
\nIn the ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge George Daniels said that awarding the families money seized from the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) would require an assessment that the Taliban is the legitimate government of Afghanistan, a decision he was \u201cconstitutionally restrained\u201d from making.
\n\u201cThe judgment creditors are entitled to collect on their default judgments and be made whole for the worst terrorist attack in our nation\u2019s history, but they cannot do so with the funds of the central bank of Afghanistan,\u201d Daniels wrote.
\n\u201cThe Taliban \u2014 not the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan or the Afghan people \u2014 must pay for the Taliban\u2019s liability in the 9\/11 attacks,\u201d he added.
\nIn February 2022, the administration of US President Joe Biden issued a controversial executive order stating it would split $7bn in frozen assets from Afghanistan\u2019s central bank between the Afghan people and families of 9\/11 victims who sued the Taliban.
\nWhile the Taliban was not directly involved in the attacks, lawyers for the families argued it had helped enable al-Qaeda, which mounted the attack, by allowing the group to operate in Afghanistan.
\nBilal Askaryar, an Afghan-American activist, told Al Jazeera at the time of the order that the Afghan people \u201chad nothing to do with 9\/11\u201d and called the decision a \u201ctheft of public funds from an impoverished nation\u201d.
\nTuesday\u2019s ruling upholds a previous decision in August 2022, when US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn also recommended that victims of 9\/11 could not seize cash from the Afghan central bank to satisfy court judgements against the Taliban.
\nDoing so would mean acknowledging the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, something Netburn said only the US president can do.
\nSince the Taliban swept aside the US-backed government and took power in August 2021, the Biden administration has not recognised the group as the country\u2019s official ruling party.
\nIn response to the ruling, Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for one creditor group known as the Havlish plaintiffs, called the conclusion \u201cwrongly decided\u201d and said the group would appeal.
\n\u201cThis decision deprives over 10,000 members of the 9\/11 community of their right to collect compensation from the Taliban,\u201d he said.
\nIn a statement sent to Al Jazeera via text on Tuesday, Arash Azizzada, co-founder of the US-based Afghans For a Better Tomorrow, welcomed the decision.
\n\u201cJustice will not be served by raiding the coffers of a people suffering from one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Aljazeera<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1aUnited States, Afghanistan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
District judge says victims cannot seize bank\u2019s assets since the US has not recognised the Taliban as a legitimate government. A United States judge has ruled that family members of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are not entitled to funds from Afghanistan\u2019s central bank. In the ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge George […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1353,1700],"class_list":["post-6278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-bank","tag-judge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6280,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278\/revisions\/6280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}