by Arutz Sheva Staff
Verdict upheld against Arab Bank for supporting Hamas during the Second Intifada; judge says case was based on 'volumes' of evidence.
Arab Bank has lost its appeal to a US court over liability for supporting terrorists on Wednesday, after the judge declared the original verdict in the case to be based on an overwhelming amount of evidence against the company.
In September a federal jury found Arab Bank liable for providing material support to Hamas in two dozen attacks attributed to the terrorist group. Nearly 300 Americans who were either victims or related to victims of the attacks, between 2001-2004, were plaintiffs in the suit.
On Wednesday, the US District Court in Brooklyn, NY upheld the verdict against Arab Bank.
The September verdict "was based on volumes of damning circumstantial evidence that defendant knew its customers were terrorists," Judge Brian Cogan stated, according to Reuters.
At that trial, the plaintiffs argued that the Jordanian-based bank violated the Anti-Terrorism Act - a law which allows victims of US-deemed terrorist organizations to seek damages.
Arab Bank was accused of maintaining accounts for Hamas operatives, and financing millions in payments for the families of suicide bombers and those imprisoned or injured during the Second Intifada.
The plaintiffs' lawyers provided a mountain of evidence including proof of each terror attack and thousands of transfers processed for hundreds of entities over a ten-year-period.
The defense argued there was no evidence Arab Bank executives supported terrorism and rejected the allegation that the institution knowingly made payments to designated terrorists.
But the plaintiffs said the bank transferred more than $70 million to a Saudi terror entity, and charities they showed served as a front for Hamas and 11 other globally-designated terrorist clients.
Included was $60,000 transferred to Hamas arch-terrorist Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004 after overseeing a total of 425 terror attacks killing 377 Israelis and wounded 2,076.
The bank claimed the transfer to Yassin was due to a "spelling mistake" of his name, which was not detected by software.
The Arab Bank Group has more than 600 branches in 30 countries and a shareholders' equity base of $7.8 billion.
Arab Bank spokespersons have declined to comment.
Arutz Sheva Staff
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/193828#.VSWfppOzd-8
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