Palestinian Groups Are Found Liable at Manhattan Terror Trial (original) (raw)
New York|Palestinian Groups Are Found Liable at Manhattan Terror Trial
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Mark J. Rochon, right, a defense lawyer, leaving Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday.Credit...Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times
- Feb. 23, 2015
The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured.
The damages are to be 655.5million,underaspecialterrorismlawthatprovidesfortriplingthe655.5 million, under a special terrorism law that provides for tripling the 655.5million,underaspecialterrorismlawthatprovidesfortriplingthe218.5 million awarded by the jury in Federal District Court.
The verdict ended a decade-long legal battle to hold the Palestinian organizations responsible for the terrorist acts, an effort that encompassed fights over jurisdiction, merit and even practicality: History has shown that it is difficult for victims of international terrorism to bring their civil cases to trial, let alone to recover damages.
While the decision on Monday was a huge victory for the dozens of plaintiffs, it could also serve to strengthen Israel’s claim that the supposedly more moderate Palestinian forces were directly linked to terrorism.
The Palestinian groups said in a statement that they intended to appeal the verdict, but did not address their willingness or capacity to pay. In at least two previous cases, in which judges entered default judgments against them for more than $100 million, the groups reached confidential settlements, court records show.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that if the Palestinian groups refused to pay, they were confident that they would be able to seize the groups’ assets, both in the United States and abroad.
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