Sept 11 families win €91.5m in damages

A US judge today awarded nearly more than €91.5m in damages to the families of two victims of the September 11 terror attacks, saying they had shown that Iraq provided material support to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

New York Judge Harold Baer outlined the damages against bin Laden, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi government in a written decision.

He said he had concluded that lawyers for the two victims “have shown, albeit barely ... that Iraq provided material support to bin Laden and al-Qaida.”

The case was being closely watched by lawyers for plaintiffs in other lawsuits filed against Iraq, al-Qaida and others because it was the first to reach the damages phase.

The judge noted that the experts provided few actual facts that Iraq provided support to the terrorists.

But he said the experts “provide a sufficient basis for a reasonable jury to draw inferences which could lead to the conclusion that Iraq provided material support to al-Qaida and that it did so with knowledge and intent to further al-Qaida’s criminal acts.”

The ruling stemmed from cases brought on behalf of the estate of George Eric Smith, 38, a senior business analyst for SunGard Asset Management and Timothy Soulas, a senior managing director and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities.

Smith was single and without children. Soulas was married with five children and his wife was three-months pregnant when he was killed.

The lawsuits relied in part on legal principles contained in a 1996 law that permitted lawsuits against countries identified by the State Department as sponsors of international terrorism.