Local lawyers battle Saudi princes in court

Judge asked to toss out Sept. 11 victims' claims

BY TONY BARTELME
Of The Post and Courier Staff
WASHINGTON--In a courtroom showdown Friday between two Saudi Arabian princes and family members who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks, lawyers battled over a question that could make or break the controversial case: Do leaders of a foreign government have immunity from American lawsuits?


TONY BARTELME/STAFF
Charleston attorney Ron Motley, lead counsel for Sept. 11 victims in a suit against Saudi Arabian leaders, said Friday in Washington that "there's no immunity for murder."

Lawyers for Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, second-in-line to the Saudi crown, and Prince Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi intelligence, asked a federal judge to toss out the case, arguing that it sets a dangerous precedent.

If the litigation continues, courts in Saudi Arabia might consider suing the Bush administration for treatment of Saudi detainees in Cuba, or other foreign policy decisions, said Prince Sultan's lawyer William Jeffress. "It's a serious issue."

But the Sept. 11 victims' lawyers, many of whom work for the Mount Pleasant law firm Motley Rice, argued that foreign leaders who are responsible for the deaths of Americans can be sued under U.S. anti-terrorism laws.

"There's no immunity for murder," Ron Motley, lead counsel for the Sept. 11 victims, said outside the courtroom.

Friday's hearing was a milestone in a lawsuit that is based on a multimillion-dollar, worldwide investigation into who financed the hijackers that defendants have criticized as a "witch hunt launched by tobacco lawyers."

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