More than six years after terrorists bombed the USS Cole in Yemen, the families of the 17 sailors killed in the blast are heading to court to try to prove the attack could not have happened without Sudan’s help.
The families’ lawsuit against Sudan’s government was to go to trial on Tuesday in a United States district court in Norfolk, where the navy destroyer is based.
”Sudan’s material support … including continuous flow of funding, money, weapons, logistical support, diplomatic passports and religious blessing, was crucial in enabling the attack on the USS Cole,” lawyers for the families said in court papers outlining their case.
The US has listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1993.
The families’ lawyers intend to prove that Sudan has given safe haven to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network since 1991 — long before Yemeni operatives blasted a 12m hole in the side of the Cole in Yemen’s Aden harbour on October 12 2000.
They also plan to show that those operatives were trained at camps Sudan permitted al-Qaeda to operate within its borders; Sudan’s military provided al-Qaeda with at least four crates of weapons and explosives for use in terrorist activities in Yemen; bin Laden and Sudan’s government owned businesses that provided cover for the procurement of explosives, weapons and chemicals; and Sudan gave al-Qaeda diplomatic pouches to ship explosives and weapons internationally without being searched.
The court papers also contend Sudan’s embassy in New York gave logistical assistance to the bombers of the World Trade Centre in 1993 but give no details.
Andrew Hall, an attorney for the families, said he expects the trial to last two to three days, with testimony by six family members and one or two experts. Lawyers also will give the judge depositions by about 50 people, including other family members and R James Woolsey, former CIA director under former president Bill Clinton.
The families seek $105-million in damages to be shared by 59 spouses, parents and children of the bombing victims.
Potential damages could be reduced, though, to not more than $35-million. US District Judge Robert Doumar has said he is inclined to apply the Death on the High Seas Act, which permits compensation for economic losses but not for pain and suffering.
Sudan had sought to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that too much time had passed between the bombing and the filing of the lawsuit in 2004, but Doumar rejected the request.
During pretrial hearings, Sudan’s lawyers declined to argue the merits of the case. Asked on Monday whether Sudan would continue to not take a position on the merits in court, attorney Carl D Gray said, ”You’ll find out tomorrow.”
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who is not connected to the case, said it’s important to give the families their day in court. But he wondered whether a victory for them ultimately will help stop terrorism.
”Maybe it will have a tonic effect on other nations and they can think twice” about harbouring terrorists, Tobias said. ”It’s another leverage point. We have diplomacy, force and maybe the rule of another law.” – Sapa-AP