Sudan ordered to respond to Cole families' lawsuits

NORFOLK

With the ninth anniversary of the bombing of the destroyer Cole just around the corner, families of the 17 sailors killed in the attack continue to seek justice and compensation.

The families have renewed efforts to reopen their civil lawsuit against the North African nation of Sudan, which was held responsible for assisting the terrorists in the Oct. 12, 2000, sneak attack in Yemen.

On Thursday, a federal judge here ordered lawyers for Sudan to respond to the families' request.

Of the 59 family members who sued, only 33 were eligible to receive payments from Sudan after a 2007 judgment in Norfolk U.S. District Court. Now, those 33 and the other 26 family members will seek tens of millions more from Sudan, after congressional action that opened a new legal door for them.

A judgment in favor of the families could wipe out the estimated $50 million in assets Sudan (or connected third parties) is believed to hold in this country, including five real estate properties and its Washington embassy.

Every year, as the 9/11 anniversary comes and goes, Lorrie Triplett likes to remind everyone of the attack on the Norfolk-based Cole that occurred the year before the attacks on New York and Washington.

Triplett's husband, 31-year-old Ensign Andrew Triplett, was killed in the Cole attack. Their two daughters are now teenagers..

"It's never gone, let's put it that way," said Triplett, of Suffolk. "When you think about all the things that could have been, it never goes away. I'll never put it behind me."

While this year's Cole anniversary will be low-key, Triplett and other families are beginning to plan for a larger 10th anniversary ceremony here, they hope, with the ship in town, she said.

Earlier this year, a federal judge in New York ordered banks there to release $13.4 million in Sudanese cash to the 33 immediate survivors of the Cole victims; in 2007, U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar had awarded $8 million, but the amount grew with interest.

Those who qualified - spouses, children and parents of unmarried sailors - were paid between $200,000 and $1.2 million each, based on a formula involving potential future earnings of the deceased sailor. It's far less, though, than the $105 million the families initially sought from Sudan.

Doumar ruled in 2007 that the Cole bombing fell under the Death on the High Seas Act, which prohibited the families from collecting additional money for punitive damages, including pain and suffering.

While the families appealed, Congress passed the Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act, which former President George W. Bush signed in January 2008. The act allows for retroactive payments in terrorism-

related wrongful death actions, except those that occurred in Iraq.

In light of the new law, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case, now five years old, back to Doumar, ordering that he determine whether the new act trumps the Death on the High Seas Act.

The families filed papers on Aug. 24 asking Doumar to allow them to file an amended complaint seeking the additional punitive damages. On Thursday, Doumar ordered Sudan to respond and nixed a request by the country's Norfolk lawyers to get out of the case.

Sudan has done little to fight the lawsuit. Representatives at its Washington embassy also have never responded to requests for interviews from The Virginian-Pilot, including messages left this week.

Norfolk attorney Greg Stillman said his firm Hunton & Williams had been retained by Sudan early in the case, but the country's representatives ceased communicating with him more than two years ago.

"I haven't been able to get anyone to return my calls," Stillman said Friday.

He said that with no instructions on how to answer the judge, Sudan will likely default.

Andrew C. Hall, one of the attorneys representing the families, said the renewed case is no slam dunk.

"Judge Doumar tends to be careful, thoughtful and scholarly, so he's going to take a good hard look at this," said Hall, from Miami.

The United States has had Sudanese assets frozen since the Clinton administration, because of atrocities committed in Darfur and the government's support of international terrorists, including al-Qaida operatives.

As a result of U.S. sanctions, the Sudan government is believed to have been liquidating its third-party assets and converting U.S. dollars into euros or other foreign currency, according to a treasury report released in January. In 2007, Sudan denied any connection between the sanctions and the liquidation, but the treasury report says that "the timing suggests otherwise."

Besides pursuing the civil action, Triplett and other family members met this year with President Barack Obama regarding the prosecution of the suspected mastermind of the attack, Abd al-Rashid al-Nashiri, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com