[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Wednesday ordered [decision, PDF] the release of Sudanese funds held by New York banks to satisfy a $315 million default judgment in the USS Cole case. The lower court found in 2012 that Sudan had provided “material support” to al Qaeda and ordered compensation for the 17 US Navy sailors killed and 42 injured in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. Despite arguments made by Sudan, the court found that the default judgment complied with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text, PDF] and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act [text, PDF].

The proceedings surrounding the prosecution of the USS Cole bombing [JURIST news archive] have given rise to numerous due process concerns. In 2007 alleged al Qaeda senior leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri declared that his confession to orchestrating the USS Cole bombing was elicited under torture [JURIST report]. Nashiri made his first court appearance [JURIST report] in November 2011 after he was captured in Dubai in 2002. Nashiri is charged with war crimes relating to the bombing of the USS Cole, the bombing of the MV Limburg in 2002 and a failed plot to attack an American warship, The Sullivans, in 2000. In March a US military judge ruled [JURIST report] that the medical care provided to Nashiri by authorities at the Guantanamo Bay detention center was adequate.