Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday recommended that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks be barred from seizing billions of dollars in assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to satisfy judgments they obtained against the Taliban. . U.S. District Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan said Da Afghanistan Bank is immune from jurisdiction and that allowing the seizures would effectively recognize the Islamist militant group as the Afghan government, something only the U.S. president can do. “Taliban victims have fought for years for justice, accountability and compensation. They have no fewer rights,” Netburn wrote. “But the law limits the damages the court can approve and those limits put the DAB’s assets beyond its remit.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Netburn’s recommendation will be considered by U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, who is also overseeing the trial and may decide whether to accept its recommendation. The decision is a defeat for four groups of creditors who sued various defendants, including al Qaeda, they held responsible for the 9/11 attacks and received default judgments after the defendants failed to appear in court. At the time of the attacks, the ruling Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan. The United States overthrew the Taliban and al-Qaeda in late 2001, but the Taliban returned to power a year ago when the US and other Western powers withdrew from the country. Attorneys for the creditor groups did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The groups are trying to tap some of the $7 billion in Afghan central bank funds frozen at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. In an executive order in February, US President Joe Biden ordered $3.5 billion of that amount to go “for the benefit of the Afghan people”, leaving victims to pursue the rest in court. read more The US government did not take a position at the time on whether creditor groups were entitled to recover funds under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002. He urged Netburn and Daniels to take a close look at exceptions to sovereign immunity, citing risks of interfering with the president’s power to conduct foreign relations and potential challenges to American property located abroad. Other countries hold about $2 billion of Afghan reserves. Shawn Van Diver, head of #AfghanEvac, which helps evacuate and resettle Afghans, said he hoped the frozen funds could be used to help the struggling Afghan economy without enriching the Taliban. “The judge did the right thing here,” he said. Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001, when planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in northern Virginia and a field in Pennsylvania. US sanctions prohibit financial transactions with the Taliban, but allow humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington, DC. Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
