Arab Bank to appeal against New York ruling upholding Hamas link

Arab Bank to launch appeal after New York court rules it aided terrorists

Arab Bank says that it will appeal a verdict in a New York court that found it liable for providing material support to Hamas, in a case brought by representatives of nearly 300 Americans killed or injured during the second Palestinian intifada between 2000 and 2005.

A federal court in Brooklyn on Monday ruled that Arab Bank, Jordan’s largest lender, did business with a series of Hamas militants in the early 2000s, helping them carry out a wave of violence in Israel, including several suicide bombings including attacks on restaurants and buses, leaving it liable to pay damages under US law.

Arab Bank yesterday announced that it would refer the case to the court of appeal, saying that the trial was “infested by scores of errors”.

The bank claimed that the jury’s verdict came as no surprise, as sanctions imposed by the district court “permitted weeks of inadmissible and inflammatory testimony of plaintiffs’ witnesses” and had excluded nearly all evidence about banking provided by the bank itself.

The court imposed the sanctions after Arab Bank disobeyed court orders to provide account records to victims and their families.

Arab Bank unsuccessfully appealed against the sanctions in the supreme court, claiming that to provide such information would violate criminal laws of Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories.

“The court gagged the bank by excluding many of its witnesses, severely restricting the ability of other witnesses to testify, and precluding all evidence of its innocent state of mind,” Arab Bank said yesterday.

“These errors were compounded by rulings including permitting plaintiffs to introduce hearsay evidence of dubious reliability, and jury instructions that dispensed with the supreme court requirement that plaintiffs prove that the bank’s services were a direct cause of their injuries,” it said.

The case against Arab Bank, launched in July 2004, is the first case to accuse a bank of violating the US antiterrorism act, which enables victims of US designated terrorist organisations to seek damages.

Similar cases are outstanding in the US against Credit Lyonnais and Bank of China for allegedly supporting Hamas.

“The verdict is an incredible message that should be understood and heard by the entire financial community — if you do business with terrorists, you can be held liable” in the US, Michael Elsner, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Jurors announced their guilty verdict after two days of deliberation at the end of a six-week trial. A separate hearing will be held in due course to determine what damages the bank must pay.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs suggest that the bank could be liable for damages running into millions of dollars.

Arab Bank shares fell by as much as 6.8 per cent in early trading yesterday on the Amman Stock Exchange before recovering in the afternoon.

The shares eventually ended the day down 2 per cent at 7.60 Jordanian dinars.

* with agencies

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