Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK: The families of victims of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks cannot seize 3.5 billion dollars in funds belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank, the New York federal judge ruled on Tuesday. According to the AFP, the assets held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were frozen on 15 August 2021the day the Taliban entered Afghanistan and toppled the US-backed Afghan government. United States (US) Joe Biden, President, later said that the money could be made available to the families of 9/11 victims.
The group of families who years earlier sued the Taliban for their losses and won since moved to seize the funds to pay off the court debt. However, Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York said the federal courts lack the jurisdiction to seize the fund from Afghanistan’s central bank.
“The judgment creditors are entitled to collect on their default judgments and be made whole for the militants’ attack in our nation’s history, but they can’t do so with the aids of the central bank of Afghanistan,” Daniels explained in a thirty-page opinion. The Taliban, not the ex-Islamic Republic of Afghanistan or the Afghan citizen, pay for the Taliban’ liability in the 9/11 Attacks.”
Daniels said he was “constitutionally restrained” from awarding the assets to the families because it would effectively mean recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate Afghan government.
Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, no nation recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government, including the United States (US).
“The basic conclusion is that neither the Taliban nor a Judgment Creditors are entitled to raid the coffers of the state of Afghanistan to pay the Taliban’s debts.”
Daniels’ ruling, which aligns with the recommendation by another judge the previous
year, deals a blow to the families of the victims of 9/11 and insurance
companies that made payments because of the attacks.
More than 2,900 citizens died when four hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and the field in Pennsylvania. Former US president George W Bush launched the invasion of Afghanistan in response, resulting in two decades of war between the United States-backed government and the Taliban.
US and NATO withdraw troops
With the withdrawal of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban retook power. The country is entirely dependent on aid and saw its economy teetering on the brink of collapse after Washington froze $7 billion in Afghan assets.
US President Joe Biden revealed the plan in February 2022 to split the cash, with half directed as aid to Afghanistan and half going to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
But it remains unclear what would happen to the latter $3.5 billion set aside for
the families if their appeals fail.
