Jury: Arab Bank liable in terror attacks

AP ^ | 9/22/2014 | TOM HAYS

[markomalley]

A U.S. jury found on Monday that a large Jordan-based bank should be held responsible for a wave of Hamas-sanctioned suicide bombings in the early 2000s that left several Americans dead or wounded.

Jurors reached the unanimous verdict in a terrorism financing lawsuit against Arab Bank after deliberating two days in at a civil trial in federal court in Brooklyn.

Plaintiff's lawyer Gary Osen said it's the first time a bank has been found liable for knowingly supporting a terrorist group.

"The question now is how the rest of the financial world, regulators and governments deal with Arab Bank," Osen said.

An attorney for the bank, Shand Stephens, predicts the verdict will be overturned on appeal based on "errors in admission of evidence, errors in jury instructions and errors in imposing sanctions."

The trial five-week trial only addressed the question of liability. Whether the bank should face damages will be decided by another jury.

"Obviously, this case is a long way from over," U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan told lawyers after dismissing the jury. "We have not finished our work here by a long shot."

[Nifster]

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