A lawsuit by families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks won a round in court Thursday when a federal judge rejected an attempt by Saudi Arabia to dismiss a lawsuit against it.
Families have long contended that Saudi Arabia provided support for the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Saudis have denied the claim.
As noted by The New York Times, the families want to sue the Saudis under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which was passed in 2016 to allow families to sue the Saudis.
The ruling is not a final resolution to the case, but it increases the odds of the lawsuit going to trial unless the Saudis are able to win an appeal of the ruling or settle with the families.
“Nearly a quarter-century after we lost our loved ones, Judge Daniels’ ruling gives us the chance to finally pursue accountability, justice, and closure in their memory,” said Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, an organization comprised of 9/11 families, according to ABC.
“We have presented overwhelming evidence that the Kingdom is complicit in the 9/11 attacks, and a federal judge agrees,” Eagleson continued. “Now, we are prepared to present even more evidence showing that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.”
He said, the ruling was “the most consequential step yet” in proving the Saudi connection.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said evidence provided by the families concerning Omar al-Bayoumi indicated that he “seemed to serve as a connecting point between the hijackers and many other people who had provided assistance to the hijackers at one point or another.”
His actions, Daniels wrote, were “inconsistent with his official employment title” as an accountant.
Was this a good ruling by the judge?
“By getting himself involved into the hijackers’ preparation for a terrorist attack, Bayoumi appears to have done much more than what a typical accountant or data processing technician would do,” the ruling said.
“His involvement appears to bear some connection with his employment” by the Saudis, Daniels wrote.
Daniels rejected the Saudis’ effort to brush aside the families’ evidence.
Saudis Can’t Dodge Lawsuit over Their Role in 9/11 https://t.co/J2pOXIpS8z
— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) August 29, 2025
“Although KSA attempts to offer seemingly innocent explanations or context, they are either self-contradictory or not strong enough to overcome the inference that KSA had employed Bayoumi and Thumairy to assist the hijackers,” he wrote, using an acronym for the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia and referring to Fahad al-Thumairy, a second man families said worked with the hijackers at the Saudis’ behest.
The ruling traced the history of the case, noting that the Saudis sent Bayoumi to San Diego in 1994 and Thumairy to Los Angeles in 1998.
Thumairy, the imam of an L.A. mosque, received significant amounts of money from the Saudis and later met with two 9/11 hijackers in 2000.
Bayoumi helped the hijackers find an apartment.
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