American Central Court for East New York
Having studied the lawsuit at a New York court, accusing Qatar and some of its financial and charity institutions of supporting terroristic acts abroad, MENA Research publishes some additional informations to the report earlier this week.
The claiming attorneys are Perles Law Firm, Fleischman Bonner & Rocco LLP, The Berkman Law Office, LLC, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner from Shurat HaDin.
The victims representatives are Robby Force (Father of Taylor Force, deceased), five relatives of Americans killed or injured in terrorist attack by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization (PIJ) in Israel between 2012–2017 in total twelve families, including 51 US citizens join the legal proceedings. All claim compensation for manslaughter and physical and psychological abuse under US counterterrorism law.
Taylor Force’s death prompted the US government to pass a law called “Taylor Force Act“, supported by Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer. The Taylor Force Act is an Act of the U.S. Congress to stop US economic aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until the PA ceases paying stipends through the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists.
The defendants are Al-Rayyan Qatari Bank, the National Bank of Qatar and Qatar Charity.
The compensation claim exceeds a total amount of 500 million USD.
Al Rayan Bank and Qatar National Bank are accused of having conspired with Qatar Charity (a terrorist organization banned in Israel), secretly laundered money for both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). They did so by using the US financial system by washing US dollars through the New York based Mellon Bank. That money was used to kill and injure US citizens.
Transactions started by transferring money from Qatar Charity bank accounts in Doha, Qatar through the American corresponding bank to Qatar Charity banking accounts in Ramallah – Palestine. The amount exceeded 20 million USD, in addition to bank accounts opened by the National Bank of Qatar to Hamas leaders residing in Doha. The evidence: Three employees of Qatar Charity were convicted in Israel, pleaded guilty to running an illegal organization back in 2015.
The Israeli non-governmental organization Shurat HaDin, which works in the legal field, was provided with court records, confessions of the accused, and the entire case file, including the accounting entries for Qatar Charity during that period. The court file also included phone records of the CEO of Qatar Charity, indicating that he was in constant contact with high military leaders of Hamas.
In addition, the file included material related to opening the account of Hussam Badran and other Hamas leaders residing in Doha. It is expected that MENA Research will soon receive copies of the SWIFT transfers, confirming the instructions issued to the intermediary banks to wire the transfers in US-Dollars. For some reasons, the name of the correspondent US bank has been withheld and bank account information has not been provided. A source in the Israeli Ministry of Finance has confirmed the bank’s name and will provide copies of the SWIFT.
