- RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (UPI)
-- A leading Saudi charity organization said Saturday that a lawsuit filed
by families of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States was "void
and lacked any evidence."
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- The director of the al-Haramain Charity Institution,
Sheikh Aqeel al-Aqeel, said the United States "cannot be an opponent
and judge at the same time."
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- He said countries close to the United States "tried
to pressure the work of the institution and tried to freeze its assets
in the banks, but they were blocked by the law because the organization
strongly stands to prove its innocence and in revealing the fabricated
lies."
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- Al-Haramain Organization was initially among a host of
other charity groups, Saudi financial institutions and a number of officials
sued for one trillion dollars by relatives of the Sept. 11 victims as organizations
that finance Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network.
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- But the group was vindicated when the United States removed
al-Haramain's name, along with a number of other institutions.
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- Al-Aqeel said the "accusations were not leveled
against al-Haramain Charity, but against all those who work in Islam and
supporting Muslims."
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- He said "the Americans thought that parts of the
money that supports orphans and Muslims was being leaked to the so-called
terrorists, which is obviously untrue and illogical."
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- Al-Aqeel said his organization employed more than 20
accountants and auditors, adding "we don't have uncontrolled money
as some believe, and we have detailed annual reports describing all expenditures."
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- On the retraction of his organization's name, he said
it did not constitute an "apology, but the press called it as such.
It was merely a clarification from the American Embassy in Sarajevo in
Bosnia, in which it said the name was similar to another's."
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- He described the lawsuit by the Sept. 11 victims' relatives
as "representing hatred toward Muslims and Islam." But he said
it was "not in our interests now to go into a confrontation with the
Americans by suing for slander and libel."
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- U.S. Deputy Secretary of Treasury Kenneth Damm recently
testified in Congress that Al-Haramain Charity was among others that abused
its funds to finance terrorism.
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- He said the United States and the Saudi government identified
the organization's branches in Somalia and Bosnia as one that supports
terrorism based on evidence linking al-Haramain to the al Qaida terror
network.
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- Meanwhile, the official al-Watan daily quoted lawyer
Kateb ash-Shammari as saying he was in the process of filing a lawsuit
against the U.S. government on behalf of Saudi students he said were mistreated
by American authorities.
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- The daily quoted ash-Shammari as saying he had "the
support of Saudi and American lawyers," and that he was consulting
with legal councilors in both countries to sue and demand compensation
for the students "who faced material and psychological damage."
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- Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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