During the pre-trial phase of a lawsuit accusing two Tamils and a Tamil charity for allegedly providing funds to the Liberation Tigers which is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US Department of State, and thereby aiding the Liberation Tigers in causing the death of several Sri Lanka civilians, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh dismissed all but two charges, legal sources in Washington said. The suit was filed by relatives of 24 Sri Lankan civilians under a 1789 US statute Alien Tort Claim Act (ATCA) for the alleged killing by the LTTE. Legal sources in Washington said that the plaintiffs have a difficult legal effort in establishing the remaining two charges due to the higher thresholds of burden of proof demanded by the Court.
U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh threw out, in full, five of the seven counts (counts 2-5) in the complaint, and also dismissed a partial count (count 7).
The dismissed charges include aiding and abetting terrorism, negligence, reckless disregard and wrongful death and survivor claims. A summary of charges filed by the plaintiffs follows:
Aiding and abetting, intentionally facilitating, and/or recklessly disregarding crimes against humanity in violation of international law;
Aiding and abetting acts of terrorism, including specifically suicide bombings and other murderous attacks on innocent civilians intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, universally condemned as violations of the law of nations;
Reckless disregard-- to a known threat when they gave individual, private, or charitable funds...
Negligence. Negligently and recklessly, directly and indirectly, failed to exercise reasonable care...
Wrongful death against defendants;
Survival action against the defendants; and
Negligent and/or intentional infliction of emotional distress against plaintiffs.
Source: TamilNet
