A US judge on Friday recommended that victims of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban.
US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan said Da Afghanistan Bank was immune from jurisdiction, and that allowing the seizures would effectively acknowledge the Islamist militant group as the Afghan government, something only the US president can do.
“The Taliban’s victims have fought for years for justice, accountability, and compensation. They are entitled to no less,” Netburn wrote. “But the law limits what compensation the court may authorise and those limits put the DAB’s assets beyond its authority.”
Netburn’s recommendation will be reviewed by US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, who also oversees the litigation and can decide whether to accept her recommendation.
The decision is a defeat for four groups of creditors that sued a variety of defendants, including al-Qaeda, they held responsible for the Sept 11 attacks, and obtained default judgments after the defendants failed to show up in court.
The groups have been trying to tap into some of the $7 billion of Afghan central bank funds that are frozen at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Other countries hold about $2 billion of Afghan reserves.
