JEDDAH/WASHINGTON, 30 August — Plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against alleged supporters of the Sept. 11 terrorists are set to request a freeze on the defendants’ US assets, one of their lawyers said yesterday. "We will do everything, including asking Congress, to block the Saudi suspects’ assets, which, in the event of a judgment in our favor, will be used to compensate the families of the victims," Jean-Charles Brisard, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, said.

The team of lawyers will first petition a US court, and at the same time are working on legislation to be considered by Congress at the opening of its next session, Brisard said.

According to the lawyers contacted by Arab News, the lawsuit by the relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US is "worthless and ineffective under US laws."

"They can only demand compensation after the parties involved are found liable," the lawyers said referring to the lawsuit seeking trillions of dollars in damages from Saudi individuals and organizations.

Saudi banks and charities have denied the accusation leveled against them in the lawsuit, saying that the case was baseless and unsubstantiated by material evidence. The Saudi lawyers said the Americans had filed the lawsuit based on false reports carried by the US media. "The lawsuit demanding compensation is filed in the US, not in the Kingdom. This is another drawback," they pointed out.

In a civil lawsuit filed at the US District Court in Washington, relatives of hundreds killed in the attacks accused seven international banks, eight Islamic foundations and charities, the government of Sudan and a number of individuals of helping fund terrorist activities.

The lawsuit, filed by individuals from across the United States and at least six other countries, asked for damages exceeding $100 trillion.

Oqail Al-Oqail, director general of Al-Haramain, recently told Arab News that US investigators had not found any reason to convict his foundation or any other Saudi organization following the Sept. 11 attacks. "So the lawsuit for compensation is a futile exercise," he added. Al-Oqail said the lawsuit was aimed at arousing suspicions on Islamic and charitable activities. Al-Haramain, based in Riyadh, has its presence in 54 countries around the world with 40 branches in the Kingdom.

Dr. Saleh Al-Wohaibi, secretary-general of WAMY, told Arab News that the organization’s board of trustees would meet soon to discuss steps to counter the lawsuit. He called upon all Saudi companies and organizations named in the lawsuit to adopt a joint stand to counter the charges. "If they consider charitable work as a terrorist activity, then why don’t they treat Western charities in the same way?" he asked. Charitable organizations in Western countries provide billions of dollars in aid annually.

Meanwhile, the Somalis yesterday welcomed the removal by the United States of money transfer company Barakaat from a list of organizations alleged to be financing international terror groups. "It is not fair that Barakaat’s name was on the list of terror-funding financial organizations, but our name is already badly dented by the inclusion in the list after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States," Mogadishu’s Barakaat Bank manager Abbas Abdi Ali told AFP yesterday.

Ali was reacting to a decision on Tuesday by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to take Barakaat off its list of individuals and companies whose financial assets were frozen because of suspected links to terrorist organizations. He did not say if Barakaat would seek legal compensation as a result of having been included on the list of terrorism sponsors.

The delisted institutions were named as Barakaat Enterprise USA, Aaran Money Wire Service Inc. and Global Service International US, all based in the United States.

Individuals who were delisted include two Swedish nationals of Somali origin, Abdi Abdulaziz Ali and Abdirisak Aden, who were employees of the Swedish branch of the Somali Bank of Barakaat. US citizen Garad Jama was also removed from the list, which was endorsed by the UN Security Council.