WASHINGTON Ñ Three powerful Saudi princes, including pro-U.S. Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, have been accused of financing Al Qaida in a lawsuit filed by families of victims of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C..
The Saudi defense minister was one of 70 defendants named by the
families of the victims in the $1 trillion lawsuit.
The other Saudis listed in the suit include former Saudi intelligence
chief Prince Turki Al Faisal and Prince Mohammed Al Faisal, Middle East Newsline reported. The 258-page,
15-count lawsuit was filed in Alexandria,Va., a suburb of Washington D.C.
"Osama Bin Laden is a naturalized Saudi Arabian whose family still has
close ties to the inner circles of the monarchy," the suit said. "Royal
denials notwithstanding, Saudi money has for years been funneled to
encourage radical anti-Americanism as well as to fund the Al Qaida
terrorists."
Prince Sultan is regarded as a challenger of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah
Bin Abdul Aziz for succession to the ailing King Fahd. The defense minister
is regarded as pro-American.
Prince Mohammed is regarded as a leading financier of Islamic groups.
Prince Turki has acknowledged that he spent more than a decade in contact
with Al Qaida.
"We're trying to expose the extent, the depth, the orchestration, the
financial support that terrorist organisations have received for perhaps a
decade from various Saudi interests," Allan Gerson, an attorney who was
involved in the Lockerbie case, said.
The lawsuit is similar to the one against Libya for the 1988 bombing of a U.S.
airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland
Saudi Bin Laden Group, a construction by the family of Osama Bin Laden,
was also cited in the suit.
Over the weekend, two Saudi charities cited in the suit denied that they
financed terrorists.
