(AP-ABC News) Eric Tucker - The U.S. government is moving closer to intervening in a civil case over deadly Palestinian terror attacks as Justice and State Department officials met Tuesday with victims' families. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Kent Yalowitz, said the U.S. was "considering putting a thumb on the scale" because the Palestinian government opposes the jury verdict. At issue is $218.5 million in damages awarded by a New York jury in February for attacks that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more - a penalty that lawyers say would be automatically tripled under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, but that the State Department fears could weaken the stability of the Palestinian government. "The Palestinians got a fair trial. The judgment was foreseeable, and they can afford to pay it over time," Yalowitz said.
2015-08-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive