{"id":366774,"date":"2026-10-07T12:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T12:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366774\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T12:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T12:17:14","slug":"families-of-9-11-victims-to-pack-nyc-court-as-saudi-govt-tries-to-dodge-civil-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366774\/","title":{"rendered":"Families of 9\/11 victims to pack NYC court as Saudi gov’t tries to dodge civil trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether Saudi Arabia can dodge a lawsuit alleging it aided the 9\/11 hijackers<\/a> \u2014 as relatives of New Yorkers killed in the attacks intently watch.<\/p>\n

More than 25 years after the deadly terror attacks,<\/a> the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan is considering a lower court judge\u2019s bombshell August 2025 ruling leaving Riyadh potentially on the hook for damages in the long-delayed civil case. <\/p>\n

Appeals court judges Guido Calabresi, William Nardini and Eunice Lee will hear from lawyers for both Saudi Arabia and the 9\/11 victims\u2019 families. <\/p>\n

The families have dug up \u201creasonable evidence\u201d that the Saudi government \u2014 which continues to deny playing any role in the attacks on 9\/11 \u2014 ran a support network for the hijackers, US District Court Judge George Daniels found.<\/p>\n

Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died on 9\/11, has called on the US government to pressure Saudi Arabia into owning up for its alleged role in the attacks. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

A potential juror could make \u201ca reasonable inference\u201d that Omar al-Bayoumi, a shadowy<\/a> Saudi national who helped secure California lodging<\/a> for a pair of American Airlines Flight 77 hijackers, had coordinated with the Saudi government, the judge ruled.<\/p>\n

Al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi spy, once hosted a \u201cwelcome party\u201d for two hijackers, had flight calculations that could be used to fly a plane into targets and at one point was seen in a chilling video \u201ccasing\u201d the US Capitol building<\/a>, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Saudi officials are appealing Daniels\u2019 decision, and are expected Wednesday to rehash claims that Riyadh is immune from facing trial in a US court because it is a sovereign state.<\/p>\n

Those claims have left 9\/11 victims\u2019 families fuming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kingdom continues to lie in court and deny any culpability, when the evidence shows that their agents were directly involved in the attacks,\u201d said Terry Strada, national chair of 9\/11 Families United, whose husband Tom, a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed in the north tower.<\/p>\n

The 9\/11 families\u2019 long-running lawsuit, first filed in 2004, contends a group of religious extremists gained influence in Saudi Arabia\u2019s government and provided aid to the hijackers.<\/p>\n

The second hijacked plane hits the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Brett Eagleson, president of 9\/11 Justice, called Saudi Arabia\u2019s continued denial of responsibility \u201cmaddening.\u201d Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia is a supposed ally and a friend of ours. Friends don\u2019t treat friends like that,\u201d added Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, was killed on 9\/11.<\/p>\n

In total, 2,977 civilians were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 al Qaeda terrorists \u2014 15 of whom were Saudi citizens \u2014 hijacked four airliners and crashed them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The terror group\u2019s leader, Osama bin Laden, was a member of one of the kingdom\u2019s wealthiest families, although the Saudis yanked his citizenship after he became a vocal critic of both the US and Riyadh.<\/p>\n

After years of twists and turns \u2014 including an act of Congress making it easier for 9\/11 victims\u2019 families to sue countries<\/a> accused of sponsoring terrorism \u2014 the case consolidated other suits<\/a> and sharpened accusations that Saudi officials teamed up with the hijackers who came to the US in early 2000.<\/p>\n

Oral arguments are expected to last around 45 minutes Wednesday. The court is then expected to rule in writing on a future date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether Saudi Arabia can dodge a lawsuit alleging it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5301,277,57,9,11112,56,63,65,64,25505,11803,58],"class_list":["post-366774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-9-11","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-court-of-appeals","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-september-11","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}