One of the organizers of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, in the United States, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, announced his readiness to testify in court on the side of people and companies who filed lawsuits against Saudi Arabia if the US authorities do not demand the death penalty for him, Wall Street Journal reported.
Earlier, relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US filed a class-action lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, which they accuse of funding and otherwise supporting the Al Qaeda terrorist group. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 800 people in order to receive compensation from the government of the kingdom. Later, more than two dozen insurance organizations in the United States filed a lawsuit against two Saudi banks and companies affiliated with the family of Osama bin Laden, as well as against several charitable organizations totaling at least 4.2 billion dollars in connection with the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Mohammed’s proposal was contained in a letter sent to the court by lawyers representing companies and relatives of the victims. Mohammed, who is currently in the American prison of Guantanamo, is not ready to testify at the moment", but “[i]n the absence of a potential death sentence much broader cooperation would be possible,” according to the filing.
It is reported that the lawyer representing the Saudi Arabian government refused to provide comments.
Earlier, Congress passed a law allowing the heirs of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist act to sue Saudi Arabia, whose citizens were the majority of the terrorists who carried out the attacks. US President Barack Obama vetoed a bill passed earlier by Congress, but the Senate overcame the veto by 97 votes to 1. Overcoming the presidential veto by the US Congress was the first such case during the Obama administration. Already in early October 2016, an American woman who lost her spouse during the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, filed the first lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorists seized several passenger planes and directed them to the buildings of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, three thousand people were the victims of the attack. Shortly after this tragedy, the US unilaterally withdrew from the treaty on limiting missile defense systems in force between Moscow and Washington since 1972.
