Update: U.S. judge in RI upholds $116-million terror verdict
6:09 PM Thu, May 14, 2009 | Permalink
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By Katie Mulvaney PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal judge in Rhode Island has upheld a $116-million verdict against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority over a 1996 terror attack that killed a U.S. citizen and his wife. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux ruled Wednesday that the Palestinian defendants cannot set aside the judgment against them because they didn't respond to the accusations from the victims' family. The decision will enable the family to go after the organization's assets in the United States and abroad if they refuse to pay, said David J. Strachman, the Providence lawyer representing the family. It comes after years of attempts to stall the case, he said. "It's important to put a dent in terrorism," Strachman said. The lawsuit was filed in 2000 by relatives of Yaron Ungar, a New York man who also held Israeli citizenship, and his wife, Efrat, who were killed by Hamas gunmen in June 1996. The family named Strachman as executor of the couple's estate, he said. According to the lawsuit, the gunmen were acting under orders from the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, making the organizations responsible. The Palestinian defendants have denied responsibility. It was the first case in country brought under the Antiterroirsm Act of 1991, passed by Congress after the killing of wheel-chair bound Leon Klinghoffer aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro by hijackers from the Palestinian Liberation Front. "The purpose of the act was to create an economic disincentive for terrorism," said Strachman, who now represents people in similar cases nationwide. Neither the organizations' local lawyer, Deming E. Sherman, of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, nor their Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Mark J. Rachon could be reached immediately for comment. -- With Associated Press reports. The original version of this story was posted at 2:59 p.m. 
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