Binladin Group claims no ties with Osama

AP - Lawyers for the Saudi Binladin Group, responding to lawsuits filed over the 9/11 attacks, say the large engineering and construction company is not liable for the terrorist plot because it forced Osama bin Laden to surrender his stake in the company 14 years ago.

In court papers, the lawyers argued that the Saudi Binladin Group, founded in 1989, forced the terrorist mastermind out as a shareholder of the company and another family-owned company, the Mohammad Binladin Co, in June 1993.

The document was filed on Friday evening in US District Court in Manhattan in response to claims in lawsuits brought by representatives, survivors and insurance carriers of the victims of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed that the Saudi Binladin Group, along with numerous banks, charities and individuals worldwide, provided material support and assistance to al-Qaeda prior to the attacks. The lawsuits seek billions of dollars in damages.

The court documents identified Bakr bin Laden - Osama bin Laden's brother, the senior member of the bin Laden family and chairman of Saudi Binladin Group - as one of al-Qaeda's principal financiers.

A judge in July had ordered Saudi Binladin Group to provide additional information about where the money for Osama bin Laden's two per cent stake in the company went.

The plaintiffs, in court papers filed in August, complained the order fell short. It required the company to produce records of changes in the assets of a 1993 trust created from the sale of Osama bin Laden's shares - but only if they document transfers to bin Laden.

"Trusts are a tool often abused by terrorist financiers due to their ability to hide true ownership of trust assets, conceal the identity of parties benefiting from the trust and otherwise mask financial details," the plaintiffs said.

In its Friday filing, lawyers for Saudi Binladin Group said Bakr Binladin publicly renounced Osama bin Laden in a statement released to the media in February 1994.

Two months later, the Saudi government revoked Osama bin Laden's citizenship and froze his assets, the lawyers noted.