Victim's widow sues Bin Laden for $5m

http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,573316,00.html


Victim's widow sues Bin Laden for $5m

Lawyers target terrorists' frozen assets

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday October 13, 2001
The Guardian


A woman whose husband was killed in the World Trade Centre on September 11 is suing the Taliban and Osama bin Laden for at least $5m in the first civil action brought on behalf of relatives of those killed in the attacks. Other cases are likely to follow.

In a separate move, more than 3,000 victims of the 1998 US Kenyan embassy bombing attacks are now seeking compensation from the newly frozen assets of alleged terrorist groups in the United States.

The new action, filed in the Manhattan federal court, is on behalf of a woman named only as Jane Doe. The woman, who comes from New Jersey, is the mother of four children and is pregnant with her fifth child.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by a Philadelphia-based lawyer, James E Beasley. Also named as defendants are the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the al-Qaida network. Mr Beasley believes that there is now a large sum of money available for victims of the attacks because the assets of all alleged terrorist groups and their patrons or supporters have now been frozen in the United States. The freezing of assets was one of the first acts taken by the Bush administration and it is estimated that $350m has already been frozen.

The man who died, identified in the lawsuit as TS, had climbed onto the roof of the World Trade Centre after it was struck by American Airlines flight 11, according to Mr Beasley. A colleague of the dead man had reached his wife on a mobile phone to say that they had survived.

"In the meantime, here's the wife watching the consequences of this, knowing her husband was at that floor and watching it collapse," said Mr Beasley. "Her grief is overwhelming and whatever can be done to see that there is true justice for herself and her children should be done." He said that the woman was not being named at this stage for her own protection.

Earlier this week a Washington lawyer who represents more than 1,000 people affected by the 1998 US Kenyan embassy bombing, in which 212 died, filed suits on their behalf seeking compensation from the frozen assets fund. Another lawyer is seeking compensation on behalf of more than 2,000 Kenyan victims.