summary & Timeline
On August 7, 1998, Al Qaeda detonated two suicide truck bombing attacks on the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people, including more than 43 U.S. Government employees, and injuring hundreds of embassy employees and thousands of other innocent men, women and children. Prior to September 11, these were among the most devastating and bloody acts of international terrorism perpetrated against the People and civilian employees of the United States.
In January 2008, the US extended the reach of the exclusions under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) to include private action lawsuits on behalf of non-US citizen victims if the victim was an employee of the US government at the time of the attack.
In August 2008, a lawsuit was filed against the Republic of Sudan for their complicity in the Al Qaeda attacks on behalf of over 600 victims under the exception to the FSIA - 28 USC §1605A. The Complaint alleged that Sudan provided material support which included financing, training, weapons, material and safe haven, to Al Qaeda and that this support was critical to al Qaeda's execution of the 1998 embassy bombings.
In October 2010, a three-day bench trial was held in the US District Court for the District of Columbia which included live and recorded testimony, expert witnesses, and documentary evidence to establish Sudan’ responsibility for the mass murder and injury of U.S. Government employees at the U.S. Embassies.
On November 30, 2011 Hon. Judge Bates entered a final judgment on liability in favor of plaintiffs and against defendants, finding that the Republic of Sudan and its Ministry of the Interior “provided several kinds of material support to al Qaeda without which [al Qaeda] could not have carried out the 1998 bombings.”
From 2012 through 2014, seven Special Masters conducted individualized assessments of damages and submitted written reports of their findings to the District Court. In 2014, following its review and assessment of those recommendations, the District Court issued extensive published opinions and entered judgments in favor of the U.S. Government employees. Sudan unsuccessfully contested those findings in the District Court and on appeal.
The U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit has affirmed Judge Bates’ finding that Sudan is responsible for the 1998 Embassy Bombings and the award of compensatory damages in the amount of $5.921 billion.
On April 11, 2015, the Republic of Sudan filed a motion to vacate the consolidated judgments. Hon. Judge John D. Bates denied the motion to vacate in its entirety.
In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Sudan’s liability, but ruled that the punitive damages could not be applied retroactively because the 2008 change in the law allowing for punitive damages was enacted after the bombings occurred.
On February 24, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments to reinstate the $4.3 billion in punitive damages against Sudan. The U.S. Solicitor General has filed an amicus brief and will also argue on behalf of the victims before the Court. Victims and families of victims were present for the hearing and spoke to the press immediately following it.
IMPACT & IMPLICATIONS
Sudan is actively attempting to be removed from the U.S. State Sponsors of Terror list, but Congress and the Administration have made clear that Sudan must fully satisfy U.S. Court ordered judgments before it can be removed. Outstanding claims also will make it harder for Sudan to secure international investment since revenue Sudan generates will be subject to seizure in international courts to pay those judgments.
A large bi-partisan group in Congress has been actively engaged on behalf of the embassy victims, and has demanded regular updates from the State Department on negotiations with Sudan.
Both Congress and the U.S. Solicitor General have also emphasized that it is vital to US foreign policy and national security to ensure Sudan is not allowed to avoid paying full damages to victims for the harm it has caused.