// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
New York court hears arguments in ongoing 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia
Saudi government employee, Omar al-Bayoumi, seen in February 2000
The Court of Appeals in New York has heard arguments from both lawyers for families of 9/11 victims and the government of Saudi Arabia as it decides whether the families' long-running legal case against the Middle Eastern country can move to trial.
Almost 3,000 people were killed on 11 September 2001 after hijackers seized four US passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, following resistance from passengers.
The families allege that a Saudi government employee, Omar al-Bayoumi, knowingly supported two of the hijackers and that he was working with a network of officials linked to the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
Thousands of people were killed on 11 September 2001 after hijackers seized US passenger jets and crashed them into two New York skyscrapers
Bayoumi, who is now retired from government work, has denied knowing the two men were hijackers or that he had any involvement in 9/11, while Saudi Arabia has said that any allegation that it or its officials are complicit in 9/11 is categorically false.
The Kingdom has argued that, as a foreign sovereign state, it has immunity from prosecution in US courts.
The families, who first filed the lawsuit in 2002, spent several years lobbying US Congress to pass an amendment to the foreign sovereign immunity law to allow the case to go ahead.
In 2016, Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which allows civil claims against a foreign state or official for injuries, death, or damages from an act of international terrorism.
In August 2025, the Manhattan District Court ruled that the 9/11 families had presented enough evidence to meet the terms of the act and the case was allowed to proceed towards a trial.