9/11 Families Await Landmark Decision in Lawsuit Against Saudi Arabia

Twenty-three years after the devastating September 11 attacks on the United States, survivors and families of victims continue their lengthy legal battle to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its alleged role in planning the attacks.

Families of survivors and victims are awaiting a landmark decision by a federal judge in New York on a case accusing Saudi Arabia of supporting the four plane hijackers who took part in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

The state strongly denies these allegations, but the plaintiffs’ attorney, Gavin Simpson, presented evidence of a support network operated by Saudi officials in the UK, which facilitated the hijackers’ movement.

The group responsible for the September attack included 19 al-Qaeda figures, including 15 Saudis, but possible links between the Saudi government and the terrorists have been the subject of questions for years.

In 2016, Congress passed the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism” Act, which allowed the families of the victims of the attack to sue Saudi Arabia, paving the way for a number of legal claims from the victims’ families to receive compensation from the Kingdom.

Allegations of Saudi Support for Hijackers

Lawyers for the victims’ families accused two Saudi nationals of supporting hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khaled al-Mihdar after they arrived in Southern California in 2000.

They said a Saudi diplomat, Fahd al-Thumairi, who worked at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, was the main contact between al-Qaeda and the two kidnappers in Los Angeles, according to prosecutors’ filings in court.

US President Joe Biden’s administration released an FBI memo in December 2021, which raised strong suspicions about Saudi Arabia’s official ties to the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks.

Evidence of Support Network

Information later released by the FBI supports prosecutors’ claims that al-Bayumi and al-Thumairi coordinated a support network in Southern California at the behest of Saudi officials.

Evidence prepared by plaintiffs’ lawyers indicated that al-Bayumi met with a Saudi diplomatic official at the consulate before meeting the kidnappers for the first time at a restaurant in Los Angeles two weeks after their arrival in California.

The 9/11 family’s lawyer presented the FBI’s findings that al-Thumairi tasked a mosque worshiper with picking up the hijackers from the airport and took them to Los Angeles in the mid-2000s.

Controversy Surrounding Plea Deal

After the hearings concluded, the Defense Department announced a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of the attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two others held with him at Guantanamo Bay.

The announcement of the plea agreement drew a backlash from the victims’ families after they walked out of the hearing.

Just two days later, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the plea deal in a surprise memo, writing that “the responsibility for such a decision should rest with me.”