Use al Qaeda’s frozen assets to pay blast victims, US court urged

A legal battle over Sh462 million thought to be al Qaeda money has started in the US with lawyers saying the money should be used to compensate the forgotten Kenyan victims of the American embassy bombing in Nairobi.

The money, which is about $7 million, is part of al Qaeda’s frozen assets.

A preliminary hearing on how to calculate the damages could take place later this year, said Mr Philip Musolino, a Washington attorney representing hundreds of the 6,000 Kenyans injured, blinded or bereaved by the Nairobi blast 10 years ago.

“I’m still hopeful,” Mr Musolino said last week. “We’re not giving up.”

Thursday August 7, 2008 is the 10th anniversary of the near simultaneous embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. In Nairobi 257 people were killed and another 6,000 injured.

In Kenya, a fresh hunt for terrorism mastermind Fazul Abdullah has been intensified after he evaded arrest last weekend.

Police have asked the public to contact them on telephone number 0714 746144 if they have information on the wanted al Qaeda mastermind.

Fazul is accused of plotting the Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam bombings. He is also blamed for the bomb attack on Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kilifi, on November 22, 2002, and the attempted downing of an Israeli jetliner as it took off from Mombasa the same day.

At the weekend, police raided a house in Malindi on suspicion that Fazul was hiding there but they found he had just fled. A couple and their son have been charged with assisting Fazul to escape arrest.

In the past, attempts to push for compensation through the courts and other arms of the US government have all ended in failure. Efforts in the US Congress to gain redress for Kenyans through the legal process have also been unsuccessful.

Hopes that Senator Barack Obama, an American with Kenyan roots might intervene on behalf of the Kenyan victims have not been fulfilled so far. Mr Obama is the Democratic candidate in the US presidential elections to be held in November.

“I don’t believe Senator Obama has had time yet to look at this particular matter, which is surprising,” Mr Musolino told the Nation.

But another US senator did raise the compensation issue in a speech commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 1998 US embassy attack.

Democrat Russ Feingold, the chairman of the Senate’s African Affairs sub-Committee, told his colleagues last week that “while some of those responsible have been brought to justice, there is still work to be done to ensure that the remaining suspects are held to account for their involvement in these heinous acts and that victims receive fair and just compensation.”

Judges who have ruled on the case in the past decade have not been sympathetic to arguments that the US should be held liable for damages due to alleged negligence.

Mr Musolino and other US attorneys representing Kenyan clients had maintained that American officials knew prior to the 1998 attack that an al Qaeda cell was operating in Nairobi yet did nothing to bolster security at the embassy, which should have been seen as a likely target of a terrorist attack.

However, the suffering and losses sustained by Kenyans are attributable to al Qaeda, not to US, which was itself victimised by the attack.

American officials have also pointed out that the US has provided Sh2.7 billion ($42 million) worth of assistance to Kenyans and Tanzanians affected by the twin bombings.

In regard to the current attempt to gain access to al Qaeda’s frozen assets, Mr Musolino said he would try to arrange testimonies by Kenyans through a video link to the federal court in Washington that is considering the case.

“Difficult questions” must also be resolved on whether to apply American or Kenyan law in calculating potential compensation, Mr Musolino said.

“The attack took place in Kenya but on what is thought of as American territory,” he said.

“Kenya’s statutes pertaining to wrongful death “are not quite as broad as American law,” the lawyer said.

A 2006 “Terrorist Assets Report” by the US Treasury Department cites $7.7 million in “blocked funds” linked to al Qaeda.

“That’s the money we’re looking at for getting back to our clients,” Mr Musolino told the Nation.

Little is publicly known about the sources of the funds frozen by the US government. The information cannot be accessed under the US Freedom of Information Act or by lawsuits.

For other stories and special reports on the August 7th blast, go to the Indepth page.