Sh12.8tr award for US embassy blast victims
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright walks past the damaged US embassy in Dar es Salaam on August 18, 1998. The embassy was hit on August 7, 1998 by a massive truck bomb, which killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Court rules that the monetary award will go to, not only those who died or the injured, but also all the employees at the two embassies that were hit in simultaneous bombings in 1998
Dar es Salaam. A US court has raised the amount of compensation to victims of the US embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi to a staggering $8 billion (Sh12.8 trillion).
Furthermore, the monetary award will go to, not only those who died or were injured in the twin terror attack, but also all the then employees in the two embassies that were hit on August 7, 1998.
The landmark ruling will be welcomed as a big relief to the surviving family members of the victims, some of whom life never went back to normal following the killing or maiming of their loved ones.
Earlier, a similar case by Tanzanian bombing victims had seen a compensation of more than $400 million awarded for death or injury.
The judgment on the consolidated case involving more than 500 clients was made on Friday in the US. The victims of the attack were represented by, among others, Mr Gavriel Mairone of MM-LAW LLC and Mr William Wheeler of Wheeler & Franks Law Firm LLC.
In an email to Kenya’s Daily Nation, Mr Mairone said the suit included citizens of Kenya or Tanzania.
“I have not given up on finding justice for the victims who are neither US citizens nor employees of the US government and their families. Unfortunately, under the current US law, we were able to bring this lawsuit only on behalf of the families of employees and American citizens,” he said.
The judgment, on behalf of 570 victims, employees at the US embassies and their surviving family members, represents the largest set of awards since Congress approved legislation in 2008 to allow terror victims who are employees of the US government and their families to sue foreign governments over responsibility for attacks.
The judgment was entered against the governments of Sudan and Iran, which were accused of supporting international terrorism.
“There’s no amount of money that can compensate people for the loss,” said Mr Mairone, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “But the point is that this is not about compensation, it’s about trying to bring the rule of law across the world.”
On that fateful day of August 7, 1998, between 10.30am and 10.40am, suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks rammed the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and almost simultaneously detonated bombs.
Although the attacks targeted American facilities, the vast majority of the casualties were local citizens; 12 Americans were killed, including two CIA employees at the Nairobi embassy.
In the Dar es Salaam blast, 11 people were killed, while 213 died in Nairobi. About 85 people in Dar es Salaam escaped with injuries, Nairobi figure stood at 4,000.
Most of the plaintiffs at the heart of Friday’s orders were Tanzanians and Kenyans who worked at the US embassies and were injured in the attacks, along with the families of those who were killed.
The victims sued to hold the governments of Iran and Sudan responsible for supporting the bombings.
According to the National Law Journal, the 2008 Amendment to the Federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act opened the door to lawsuits brought by foreign citizens working for the US government.
Mr Steven Perles of Perles Law firm in Washington, also a lawyer for the plaintiffs, credited Vice-President Joe Biden with moving through the 2008 legislative changes affecting foreign citizens working for the US when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Mr Biden single-handedly moved for relief for foreign State Department employees and those local personnel who serve in our embassies,” said Mr Perles.
Justice John D. Bates and other judges in the federal court in Washington have awarded a series of high-dollar judgments to victims of terrorism and their families since 2008. In May 2013, Justice Bates awarded $8.4 billion (Sh134 trillion) to victims of the 1983 and 1984 bombings at the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon and their families.
“Damage awards cannot fully compensate people whose lives have been torn apart; instead, they offer only a helping hand. But that is the very least that these plaintiffs are owed. Hence, it is what this court will facilitate,” Judge Bates wrote in the rulings.
The plaintiffs face an uphill task in collecting the money. Iran and Sudan have not participated in the litigation, and Iran has yet to pay nearly $18 billion (Sh288 trillion) it already owes from other judgments in terrorism cases in the DC court.
Mr Mairone said the plaintiffs’ legal team was in the process of identifying assets they might be able to attach and was optimistic about being able to collect for their clients.
