Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said there was no evidence suggesting that the kingdom had any links to the terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, AP reported. It has asked a Manhattan District Court judge to drop the 25 lawsuits against it, which demand that the country pay damages to the victims of the 9/11 strike.
Lawyers representing Saudi Arabia argued that the new evidence the plaintiffs had produced in court were hearsay and speculation and did not support the findings required for “jurisdiction over Saudi Arabia”. They also said that the country deserved sovereign immunity.
Saudi Arabia’s lawyers also produced a 2005 executive summary from the US Central Intelligence Agency, saying there was no evidence to prove that it was involved with the 9/11 attackers, Al Jazeera reported. “Neither proper allegations nor any evidence support plaintiffs’ conclusory assertions that Saudi Arabia caused the 9/11 attacks by knowingly or even recklessly aiding the terrorists who committed them,” the kingdom said in its filing.
Of the 19 attackers that had targeted the World Trade Centre in New York City, 15 were from Saudi Arabia. Nearly 3,000 people had died in the attacks that hit the WTC, the Pentagon in Washington and a Pennsylvania field.
The 9/11 Commission report had cleared the Saudi Arabian government, though senior officials had said that charities sponsored by the country’s government may have funded the attacks.
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