The state of Iowa, along with 29 other US states, has filed a ief with the US Supreme Court, asking it to review a ruling that prevents families of 9/11 attack victims from accessing $3.5 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan's central bank.
The states argue that a law passed by Congress explicitly allows the frozen assets of an entity responsible for terrorist acts to be used to pay compensation to victims. Families of 9/11 victims have previously won judgments in US courts totaling approximately $17 billion in compensation from the Taliban.
enna Bird, Iowa's Attorney General, stated that the victims and their families have sought justice through the legal system and should be able to collect the money awarded to them by the courts. This new legal action increases the pressure to seize the assets belonging to the people of Afghanistan.
After the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the United States froze about $7 billion of Afghanistan's central bank reserves. The Biden administration later moved half of this amount ($3.5 billion) to a trust fund in Switzerland and set aside the other half to address legal claims from 9/11 victims' families.
However, in Feuary 2023, a federal judge in New York ruled that these families could not access the assets, stating that Afghanistan's central bank has sovereign immunity and the court lacks the authority to transfer the funds. Now, a coalition of 30 states is asking the Supreme Court, the highest judicial authority in the US, to overturn that decision.
This case has sparked significant legal and ethical debates. Critics argue that these assets belong to the Afghan people, not the Taliban government, and using them for compensation would constitute collective punishment of the people of a country that has also been a victim of terrorism.
Source: Iowa Attorney General's Office
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