International Law
Judge Sets Aside $200M Judgment Against Palestinian Authority
Posted Mar 28, 2008, 07:19 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal judge has set aside a nearly $200 million judgment against the Palestinian Authority and ordered a new trial in a suit that contended the authority was liable for a terrorist attack in Israel.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of Manhattan said the authority had "sufficiently demonstrated evidence of facts that, if proven at a trial, would constitute a complete defense to plaintiffs' aiding and abetting" arguments, the Washington Post reports. The judge also said the $174 million judgment, which now stands at nearly $200 million with interest, was so high as to warrant a new trial.
The Palestinian Authority had initially argued it had sovereign immunity in the suit, a claim rejected by U.S. courts because Palestine is not a state, according to the Post story. The authority then refused to defend itself in the suit, brought by relatives of a man killed in a terrorist attack. New lawyers now represent the authority and say they will mount a rigorous defense.
Marrero had asked the U.S. government for its opinion of the case, but the government decided not to take an official stance. It did say, however, it feared lawsuits could damage the “financial and political viability” of the Palestinian Authority, the Washington Post reported in an earlier article.
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