SEND IN THE LAWYERS

Suicide bomb victims can sue Credit Agricole unit (Reuters)

A lawsuit by families of suicide bomb victims in Israel seeking damages from French bank Credit Lyonnais claiming it knowingly provided financial services to a group linked to Hamas can proceed, a U.S. federal judge ruled on Thursday.  The suit, which made claims on behalf of 25 families of U.S. victims killed or wounded in the attacks, alleges that Credit Lyonnais, S.A. provided financial services and material support to CBSP, a French charity that raises funds for Hamas. CBSP has been officially designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

Credit Lyonnais, a unit of Credit Agricole SA,rejected the claims and filed a motion to have the suit dismissed. U.S. District Judge Charles Sifton dismissed the most serious of the plaintiff's three claims -- that the French bank "aided and abetted the murder, attempted murder, and serious bodily injury of American nationals." However, he denied the bank's motion to dismiss claims that it "knowingly provided material support or resources to a "foreign terrorist organization" and "unlawfully and willfully provided or collected funds" for terrorist purposes. Sifton wrote that the plaintiffs argue convincingly that "it is reasonable to believe that when the bank noticed 'unusual activity' on CBSP's accounts in 2000, in the form of large transfers of money to the West Bank and Gaza strip ... the bank would have investigated the organizations receiving the large transfers."

Twenty-two of the plaintiffs in the case were wounded in thirteen separate terrorist attacks between March of 2001 and August of 2003 that took place on buses, highways, markets and restaurants. Nine plaintiffs represent Americans killed in the attacks.

Sifton's ruling follows a similar one last week in which he allowed a suit brought by victims and families of bombings to seek damages from Royal Bank of Scotland's Natwest to proceed. The suit, which made claims on behalf of 15 families of Americans wounded in the attacks, claimed the unit also knowingly provided services to a British Hamas-linked charity.