Afghanistan Times
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Kabul: A judge in US has ruled that family members of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are not entitled to Afghan frozen assets seized by the US government.
In the ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge George Daniels said “The perpetrators – not the Afghan people – must pay for the liability in the 9/11 attacks.”
He added that letting victims seize those assets would amount to a ruling that the Afghan people were involved in that incident.
In an executive order last February, U.S. President ordered $3.5 billion of the Afghanistan central bank assets to set aside to for 9/11 victims.
Last September, the U.S. Treasury said it would move other part of that money to a Swiss-based trust fund.
The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of fighting terrorist groups and ousted the then afghan rulers, but when Western forces fled the country the latter came to power.
Nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, when planes were flown into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in northern Virginia, and a Pennsylvania field.
U.S. imposed sanctions on financial institutions in Afghanistan, but allows humanitarian support for the Afghan people.
