Sudan Owes 8 Million to Cole Families
What does Yemen owe?
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Sudan to pay nearly $8 million to the families of 17 sailors killed in the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole.
The families had sought $105 million, but U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar in Norfolk ordered Sudan to pay $7.96 million.
Doumar applied the Death on the High Seas Act, which permits compensation for economic losses but not for pain and suffering.
“It is depressing to realize that a country organized on a religious basis with religious rule of law could and would execute its power for purposes which most countries would find intolerable and loathsome,” Doumar wrote in his ruling. “It is a further tragedy that the laws of the United States, in this instance, provide no remedy for the psychological and emotional losses suffered by the survivors.”
The families accused Sudan’s government of providing support, including money and training, that allowed al-Qaida to attack the destroyer while it was in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, on Oct. 12, 2000. In March, Doumar found the African country liable for the attack on the now-repaired Navy destroyer. His ruling Wednesday reaffirmed those findings.
“I was a little bit disappointed in the overall ruling, because we figured we was going to get more, but I’m happy that that part of the case is over,” said Lorrie Triplett, 39, of Suffolk, whose husband, Andrew, died on the Cole. “For myself and my girls, I am happy for the ruling — it will suffice them.”
Sudan had sought unsuccessfully to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that too much time had passed between the bombing and the filing of the lawsuit in 2004. Lawyers representing the Sudanese government did not offer opening statements or closing arguments or question any witnesses.
An attorney for the families has said it would be up to the lawyers to collect damages from Sudan’s assets that have been frozen in the United States.
errrr, no Al-Badawi’s death sentence was reduced to 15 years and the others were reduced as well. Then they escaped from jail in February 2006.
Sudan to appeal USS Cole compensation ruling
Sudanese Justice Minister says Sudan could not be held responsible for act committed outside its territory.
KHARTOUM – Sudan said on Friday it would appeal a US ruling ordering it to pay 7.9 million dollars in compensation to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
“An American lawyer has been tasked with appealing the case on behalf of the Sudanese government,” Justice Minister Mohammed Ali Mardi said in a statement.
“There are several cases in US jurisprudence where proceedings against states have been cancelled over sovereignty… and this will be the basis of Sudan’s case,” he said, adding that his country could not be held responsible for an act committed outside its territory.
The bombing was carried out by two Yemeni militants with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network who had trained in Sudan. The US destroyer was anchored in the Yemeni port of Aden at the time of the attack.
US federal Judge Robert Doumar ruled in mid-March that Sudan should be held accountable for the attack, and on Wednesday he ruled that it must pay compensation to the families.
Relatives of the sailors who died in the bombing had originally asked for a total of 105 million dollars in damages.
Doumar’s 51-page ruling includes a list detailing the amount of money each relative in the case should get.
The amounts range from zero for some of the victims’ siblings to a maximum of 781,000 dollars. Most payments for wives, children and parents were in the 150,000- to 200,000-dollar range.
The money would come from some 68.2 million dollars worth of Sudanese assets that US officials have frozen because of Khartoum’s alleged links to terrorism.
After failing to stop the proceedings, arguing that US federal courts lacked jurisdiction, the government of Sudan refused to participate in the trial.
Seventeen US sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the October 2000 blast when the two Yemenis blew themselves up next to the Cole, punching a 12-metre (40-foot) hole in its side.
Six militants tried in Yemen were condemned in 2005 for their role in the attack, including one whose death sentence was confirmed on appeal.
According to the Pentagon, a captured Al-Qaeda operative confessed in March to being the mastermind behind the Cole bombing and a key participant in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings.
Wallid bin Attash told a military hearing in Guantanamo Bay that he bought the explosives and recruited members of the team that rammed a small boat into the side of Cole while it was refuelling in Aden.
Attash said he was with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, at the time of the attack.
