Saudi Arabia calls on US judge to drop lawsuit against the Kingdom over 9/11 attacks

Saudi Arabia has asked a US federal judge to reject a lawsuit that seeks to hold the Kingdom accountable for the September 11 attacks of 2001, Saudi newspaper Okaz reported yesterday. The paper cited a document presented by Riyadh’s lawyers to the Manhattan federal court in which he stated that the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which was passed in Congress in 2016 and is commonly known as JASTA, does not change the reality on the ground, which is that there is no evidence of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the 2001 attacks. Bush and the Congress, found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organisation [Al-Qaeda].” The report, however, did not “exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to Al-Qaeda”.