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Saudi Arabia Asks To Be Dropped From Lawsuits

Saudi Arabia Asks To Be Dropped From Lawsuits

Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with the 11 September, 2001, attacks and should be dismissed from lawsuits brought by victims' families, a lawyer for the kingdom has told a judge.

The country was dropped as a defendant nine years ago by a judge, who argued it was protected by sovereign immunity.

But in December 2013 a federal appeals court reinstated it, saying there was a legal exception because of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the terror attack.

Lawyer Michael Kellogg made the argument before a Manhattan federal judge. He said there were no facts showing Saudi Arabia knew of the attacks in advance, or knowingly aided terrorists.

Mr Kellogg said the plaintiffs had failed to allege "admissible, concrete, competent evidence" of Saudi Arabia's involvement, but had instead relied on innuendo and rumour to support their claims.

He argued that foreign nations are immune to such lawsuits.

Speaking for the 11 September families, lawyer Sean Carter said the judge must decide whether there is sufficient evidence to find that Saudi Arabia agents provided terrorists with "operational assistance".

He said that two Saudi government employees held two of the hijackers who could not speak English to find an apartment when they arrived in San Diego.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabian citizens.

One of the government employees put the hijackers up at his apartment, co-signed and guaranteed their lease and helped them to open a bank account with $9,000 of his own money.

Lawyers have said they have developed new evidence against Saudi Arabia since a 11 September Commission report found no evidence the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials had individually funded al Qaeda.

The lawsuits were brought from 2002 against countries, companies and organisations accused of aiding the terror group and others. They are seeking billions of dollars in damages.