Judge rejects Saudi Arabia's bid to dismiss 9/11 families lawsuit

Saudi Arabia can face a civil lawsuit that alleges the kingdom helped the 9/11 hijackers, a federal judge ruled Thursday.Why it matters: Those impacted by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have spent over 20 years in court seeking to hold accountable the kingdom, which denies any wrongdoing in the massacres.Judge George Daniels' ruling in New York marks the "most consequential step yet in the families' pursuit of justice," said 9/11 Justice, a group representing survivors, first responders and families of victims of the attacks, in a media statement.Foreign governments typically have immunity protections from lawsuits, but Congress passed a law in 2016 allowing 9/11 victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia. So the kingdom has been trying to get the case dismissed.Driving the news: In rejecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) motion to dismiss the case, Daniels said the plaintiffs had provided "reasonable evidence as to the roles" that two Saudi men and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia allegedly played in assisting the 9/11 hijackers."KSA did not proffer sufficient evidence to the contrary," Daniels wrote."Although KSA attempts to offer seemingly innocent explanations or context, they are either self-contradictory or not strong enough to overcome the inference that KSA had employed" the men, Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy to help the hijackers, he said.The judge took issue with the kingdom's claims that "Bayoumi's encounters with the hijackers were coincidences" and that an airplane drawing "was unrelated to the 9/11 Attacks.""These are all either conclusory attorney speculations not grounded in facts, or self-serving denials or excuses from Bayoumi himself that do not withstand scrutiny," Daniels said.What they're saying: Attorneys for the kingdom that's headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) in seeking to have the case dismissed argued last year that the state was allied with the U.S. against terrorism in the 1990s and had revoked the citizenship of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who oversaw the 9/11 attacks.The kingdom did not immediately comment on the ruling.Read the ruling in full, via DocumentCloud: Go deeper: More FDNY members have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed in attack

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