November 17, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 21, 1424

WASHINGTON, Nov 16: A US federal judge has dismissed charges of illicit dealings with Osama bin Laden levelled against two prominent members of the Saudi royal family, saying US courts lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

“The claims against them for acts allegedly done in their official capacities will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” US District Judge James Robertson wrote in a ruling issued Friday.

The dismissed lawsuit was filed by more than 900 family members of those who perished in the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The defendants were former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who also chairs a government council handling Saudi assistance to Islamic organizations.

The complaint was based on allegations — repeatedly denied by Saudi officials — that members of the Saudi royal family had secretly channelled assistance to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network in exchange for a pledge not to carry out attacks in the desert kingdom.

The plaintiffs alleged that Prince Turki had secretly travelled to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in July of 1998 for talks with bin Laden’s representatives, during which he was able to secure Al Qaeda’s promise not to use “the infrastructure in Afghanistan to subvert the royal families’ control of Saudi government.”

In exchange, the Saudis promised not to seek Osama’s extradition and gave Taliban rulers of Afghanistan 400 new pickup trucks, according to the complaint.

Turki was also “instrumental” in arranging a meeting in Kandahar between senior Iraq intelligence operative Faruq al-Hijazi, who served as Saddam Hussein’s ambassador to Turkey, and Osama bin Laden in December of 1998, the complaint said.

US intelligence officials say they lack compelling evidence that meeting has ever taken place.

In addition, the plaintiffs insisted that Sultan, in his capacity as chairman of the Saudi Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, “publicly supported and funded several Islamic charities that were sponsoring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda operations.”

But the charges were refuted by both Saudi leaders, who argued no double dealing had ever taken place between the kingdom and Osama bin Laden’s organization.

Saudi officials have blamed Al Qaeda for a suicide bombing earlier this month that claimed the lives of 17 people and wounded 100 others at an expatriate housing complex outside Riyadh and said they were now waging “a total war” against the group.—AFP