Cairo: Egyptian rights advocates and politicians last week called for filing compensation lawsuits in international courts against Qatar for its support of terrorist attacks in the country.
“The [Egyptian] parliament should pass legislation on compensation for terrorism victims similar to the American JASTA law,” Hafez Abu Saeeda, the head of the non-governmental Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), said at a Cairo conference on legal support for victims of terrorism.
He was referring to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, passed by the US Congress last year, allowing families of victims of the September 11, 2011 attacks in New York to sue foreign countries linked to the assaults.
Abu Saeeda said that a team of Egyptian, Arab and foreign lawyers will be formed to sue terror-sponsoring countries, noting that they could go to The Hague-based International Criminal Court that previously handled similar cases.
The team will collect powers of attorney from families of terrorism victims and document groups and countries involved in violence in order to file legal complaints at international tribunals, he explained.
“Reconciliation is not possible in issues related to terrorist acts that cannot be regarded as political opposition. Terrorism is a crime against humanity.”
Abu Saeeda called for instituting a global system to compensate victims of terrorism, citing a surge in terror acts in the world, including the Arab region.
The campaign to support victims of terrorism is pursued by the Cairo-based EOHR and the Arab Federation for Human Rights (AFHR) headquartered in Geneva.
“The aim of this conference is to discuss all ways aimed at offering legal support for victims of terrorism,” said Salah Salem, a member of Egypt’s state-appointed national Council for Human Rights.
He accused Qatar and other countries whom he did not name of standing behind a spate of terrorist attacks that have hit Egypt since the army’s 2013 overthrow of president Mohammad Mursi, a senior official in the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar is a staunch backer of the Brotherhood.
“These countries have to pay damages for victims of terrorism including those whose factories have been closed and plantations destroyed as a result of terrorism,” added Salem.
Last month, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over its supporting and funding of terrorist organisations. The four countries have also placed on lists of terrorism dozens of people and groups associated with Qatar.
Alaa Abed, who heads the Egyptian parliament’s human rights committee, voiced the panel’s backing for the latest anti-Qatar moves.
