New York court hears arguments in ongoing 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia

The families allege that men with links to the Saudi government helped those who carried out the 2001 attacks, something the country denies. 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