High level Saudis removed from 9/11 lawsuit

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...c=Worldupdates

(Gold9472: Immunity from what? Oooooooh, you mean there's some legitimacy to the charges...)

By Mark Babineck
9/22/2005

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Saudi High Commission for Relief and two Saudi princes were granted immunity on Wednesday from litigation in three lawsuits stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S. District Judge Richard Casey found that Prince Salman, president of the High Commission, and Interior Minister Prince Nayef were not personally liable since they were acting as agents of the Saudi government.

The lawsuits charged that the High Commission and the princes had sponsored terror with Saudi funds under their direction.

In January, Casey ruled that Saudi Arabia, the Saudi defense minister and the country's ambassador to Britain all had immunity from the litigation.

The cases are among eight consolidated before the Manhattan federal judge that were filed on behalf of more than 3,000 plaintiffs including family members of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as well as survivors and insurance carriers.

The complaints said more than 200 defendants helped support and fund the Sept. 11 mastermind Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the three Sept. 11 plane attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania were Saudi nationals.