By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — In an eye-brow raising ruling likely to get challenged, a federal judge in Washington ruled Wednesday that the Bank of China can be sued for allegedly supporting terrorism in a 2006 suicide bombing case in Israel, the Washington Post reported.
Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth, in an 118-page ruling, struck down a request by the state-controlled bank to be dropped from the case.
The South Florida parents of 16-year-old Daniel Wultz filed the suit after their son was killed in a Tel Aviv restaurant in a bombing the Palenstinian group Islamic Jihad took credit for, the Post reported. The group is supported by Syria and Iran.
In the suit, Wultz’s parents, Yekutiel and Sheryl Wultz, are asking for $300 million in damages from Iran and Syria and the Bank of China (BOC).
“The 2008 lawsuit alleges that officials at the Bank of China ignored warnings by senior Israeli officials that Islamic Jihad was financing deadly bombings through a Bank of China account in the United States maintained by a purported senior officer of the militant group, Said al-Shurafa,” the Post reported.
“The Court must assume the truth of this allegation, which is plausible because it is reasonable to assume that, although BOC is not directly owned by China . . . China does exert a measure of control over the BOC through China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China,” the judge wrote.
Wang Baodong, a Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, told the Post that China opposes terrorism and “strongly question the allegations in question.”
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- Va. Man Pleads Guilty to Aiding Terror Group (AP)
- Former Interim Detroit U.S. Attorney Finishes Up Stint in Ga. (Main Justice)
- Intelligence Chief to Review Handling of Mumbai Tips (ProPublica)
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