A judge on Tuesday refused a bid by the families of Sept. 11 victims to seize $3.5 billion in frozen assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to fulfill previously obtained court awards against the Taliban. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge George Daniels of Manhattan said that he was “constitutionally restrained” from allowing the relatives access to the funds, as it would require recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, something he noted was beyond the U.S. courts’ power. “The judgment creditors are entitled to collect on their default judgments and be made whole for the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history, but they cannot do so with the funds of the central bank of Afghanistan,” Daniels wrote. “The Taliban—not the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan or the Afghan people—must pay for the Taliban’s liability in the 9/11 attacks.” In a statement, Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for a group of relatives seeking the funds, said, “This decision deprives over 10,000 members of the 9/11 community of their right to collect compensation from the Taliban. We believe it is wrongly decided and will appeal.”
