经济学人94:阿拉伯银行 原告的长臂

 Arab Bank阿拉伯银行The long arm of the plaintiff原告的长臂American victims of terrorism sue a bank, claiming it abetted 1 attacks美国恐怖主义的受害者们控告一家银行，声称其支持恐怖袭击HAMAS, the Islamic militant 2 group that runs Gaza and conducts terrorist attacks in Israel, does not tend to answer court summons. But Arab Bank, one of the oldest financial institutions in the Middle East, does. This week, after a decade of legal toing and froing, it found itself on trial in Brooklyn, accused of complicity in various acts of terrorism by Hamas in which Americans were killed or injured. The victims and their families claim that Arab Bank “knowingly and purposefully” abetted the attacks by providing financial services to people and organisations linked to Hamas; Arab Bank denies the claim.

哈马斯，作为一个经营加沙地带穆斯林组织和在以色列引导恐怖袭击的恐怖组织，并没有表现出对法院传票有所回应的意思。但是阿拉伯银行，作为一家中东最为古老的的金融机构却对此做出了回应。本周，在经过了十年法律上的游走之后，他们由于被指控参与了导致了美国人受伤和被杀害的哈马斯所组织各式各样的恐怖行动与之共谋而正在布鲁克林受审。受害者及其家人声称阿拉伯银行“故意的以及有目的性”的通过为与哈马斯相关的人或者组织提供金融服务来支持恐怖行动。而阿拉伯银行否认了这项指控。
阿拉伯银行.jpgThe bank is being sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1990, whereby Americans can claim damages in federal court for injuries caused by terrorism anywhere in the world. The law was passed in response to the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound American who was shot and then tossed off an Italian cruise ship by Palestinian hijackers. In theory it provides broad scope for redress 3, but in practice it has had little effect, as foreign terrorists are hard to bring to justice. Hence the plaintiffs' search for less elusive 4 accomplices 5.
银行是在1990年反恐法案的的背景下被起诉的，美国人可以在联邦法院因世界任何地方的恐怖主义要求损害赔偿。这项法律的通过是为了响应林霍夫谋杀案—一个被枪击的坐轮椅的美国人被巴基斯坦的劫机者弃尸在了一艘意大利的游轮上。随着犯罪嫌疑人的绳之以法，理论上说这本因受到大量的赔偿，但在实际中却是大大相反。因此原告开始寻找神出鬼没的同谋者。
The lawsuit 6, which was first filed in 2004, originally involved only six families affected 7 by Hamas attacks, including the parents of a two-year-old child killed in a bus bombing. But more victims have signed up: there are now 297 plaintiffs; and hundreds of other claims are pending 8.
自2004年之后那些陆续录入档案的诉讼案件，最初仅仅包括被哈马斯恐怖袭击的影响的六个家庭，包括一对因汽车爆炸而丧生的两岁儿童的父母。但是现如今更多的受害者已经签署：现在已经有279名原告；以及其他数百名悬而未决的事件的受害者。
The plaintiffs accuse Arab Bank of having helped Hamas in three different ways. First, it transferred funds from the Saudi Committee, ostensibly a charity, to relatives of 55 suicide-bombers. One payment went to the family of a man who bombed a restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, killing 9 15 people including seven children. Second, the bank maintained accounts for another dozen charities that the plaintiffs contend were merely fronts for Hamas. The final connection was by providing personal accounts for 30 senior members of Hamas, including Ahmad Yassin, the group's spiritual leader, who was designated a terrorist by the American government in 1995, and Salah Shehadeh, the founder 10 of its military arm. Arab Bank did so, according to the court's summary of the plaintiffs' argument, despite knowing that the people and organisations concerned were involved in terrorism.
那些指控阿拉伯银行帮助哈马斯的原告主要是从三个方面的原因来谈的。首先，它以慈善的名义从沙特委员会划拨资金给55名自杀式炸弹袭击者的家属。其中一些款项就是流向一个在2001年炸了一家耶律撒冷餐馆导致包括七名孩子在内的十五人丧生的恐怖分子家属。其次，原告者认为银行所维系的另外十二个慈善机构的账户也仅仅是针对哈马斯方面的。他们终端的联系方式便是通过银行为三十名包括Ahmad Yassin在内的哈马斯的高级成员开设私人账户。而Ahmad Yassin作为哈马斯的精神领袖，于1995年被美国政府作为高危恐怖分子列入在册。这其中还包括Salah Shehadeh，哈马斯军事部门的创始人。根据法院对于原告的论点总结，阿拉伯银行尽管知道这些人或者组织与恐怖主义息息相关，却依旧如此作为。
The bank has denied each of the claims, contending that no services were provided to any entity 11 or person on America's list of known terrorists at the time, with the exception of a single transaction on behalf of Mr Yassin, due to a clerical error. It also points out that the transfers it made on behalf of the Saudi Committee were among the thousands the group made to the families of people hurt or killed in fighting in the West Bank and Gaza, and so appeared as humanitarian 12 in nature. The courts have barred Arab Bank from defending itself on the ground that it complied with all local laws in the countries where the transactions took place, or on the ground that the attacks are part of a long history of violence in the region for which it could not be held responsible.
银行否认了以上每条索赔要求，声称并没有为任何美国已知的恐怖分子名单上的实体或者个人提供服务，除了单个为了如Yassin先生所办理的交易，但这是由于笔误。它同样还指出其代表代表沙特委员会所作出的交易为了在约旦河西岸以及加沙地带战斗中受伤或者死者的家人所做的数以千计的交易之一，所以具有人道主义的性质。法院已经禁止了阿拉伯银行分别以其遵守了仲裁执行地国家的法律和袭击是发生在废弃责任区的历史暴力问题的一部分为由，进行自我辩护。
The main drama in the trial thus far has been the selection of the jury. Finding enough New Yorkers who are unopinionated and uninformed enough to form an unbiased panel has not been easy. No fewer than 500 candidates were required to complete a 25-page questionnaire to probe their suitability. It asked where they got their news, whether they spoke 13 Arabic or Hebrew, what ties they and their friends and family had to the Middle East, and whether they knew any victims of terrorism, including the various attacks on New York. There were also questions not only about their own impressions of Muslims, Jews and Arabs, but also about those of their family and friends. Amazingly, this interrogation yielded ten apparently 14 neutral jurors who will now sit through a trial that could last weeks or months.
这审判的主要的戏剧性是在于迄今为止这一直都是陪审团的选择。寻找足够的不是那么武断的足够无知纽约人来形成一个公正的团体也不是那么容易。不低于500名的候选者被要求完成一份25页的问卷调查他们的适应性。这份问卷调查他们获得新闻的来路，他们是否会说阿拉伯语或者是希伯来语，他们和他们的朋友家人是否和中东有所关系，以及他们是否认识任何恐怖主义的受害者，包括纽约的各种恐怖袭击。并且还有些问题不仅是关于他们自己对于穆斯林、犹太、以及阿拉伯的印象，并且还有他们的家人以及孩子对此的印象。令人惊奇的是，这种询问选出了十名看似中立陪审员，这些人现在将坐在那度过可能持续几周或几个月的审判。