A woman widowed when her husband was killed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 sued Saudi Arabia just two days after the US Congress enacted legislation allowing Americans to sue foreign governments for allegedly being involved in terrorist attacks on US soil.
Stephanie Ross DeSimone alleged the kingdom provided material support to Al Qaida and its leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a complaint filed Friday at a US court in Washington. Her suit is also filed on behalf of the couple’s daughter. DeSimone was pregnant when Navy Commander Patrick Dunn was killed.
A US commission that investigated the 2001 attacks said in a 2004 report that it “found no evidence that the Saudi government, as an institution, or senior officials within the Saudi government funded Al Qaida”.
The Saudi embassy didn’t immediately reply to an e-mailed message seeking comment on the suit.
The case is DeSimone v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 16-cv-1944, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
