_a.jpg "Photo: Doron Golan")
Canada lawsuit charges local Lebanese bank financed Hizbullah
Four Israelis with dual citizenship file $6.15 million civil damages suit against Beirut-based Lebanese-Canadian Bank for allegedly subsidizing terrorist group during Second Lebanon War
The four - Sarah Yefet and her daughter Shoshana Sappir of Safed, and a couple, Rochelle and Oz Shalmoni of Carmiel - are demanding $6.15 million in damages.
In their claim statement, the four said that the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB), which has a Montreal office, provided banking and financing services to Hizbullah and two additional Lebanese organizations that serve as financing hubs for the Shiite organization.
“The bank began its financial activities two years prior to the onset of the Second Lebanon War, despite the fact that it knew exactly what the organizations’ goals were,” the plaintiffs wrote.
It should be noted that while the LCB is headquartered in Beirut, the fact that it has a Montreal-based branch makes it a subordinate to Canadian law.
In accordance to Canada’s 2001 Terrorism Act, the government can prosecute perpetrators of terrorist attacks against Canadian civilians, the world over.
This is the first time that a private civil action has been filed in Canada against Hizbullah, which the country labeled a terrorist organization in 2002.
The Shalmonis were visiting Canada when the war broke out and they stayed there until its end. Upon their return to Israel they found their home severely damaged by Hizbullah rockets, which forced them and their three children to take up residence in a Tel Aviv apartment they shared with another 12 “refugees” from battered northern Israel.
'Revealing Hizbullah's Canadian networks'
The couple also claims that their children suffer from trauma and that their income severely decreased throughout the period they were forced to be absent from work.Shoshana Sappir stated in the claim that she was five-months pregnant during the war, the events of which forced her into premature labor. After giving birth, she and her mother were transferred to a shelter for an extended period of time.
The plaintiffs are represented by Professor Ed Morgan, former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal lawyer Jeffrey Boro, and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and director of the Israel Law Center Shurat Hadin which legally fights Islamic terror organizations.
According to Leitner, this claim, “is only the first step in revealing the Hizbullah’s financial network in Canada.”
Several months ago 50 American citizens injured in terror attacks filed a half billion dollar damages suit against a Swiss bank they claim assisted in financing Hizbullah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The suit asserted that the Swiss bank transferred money to Iran despite the American government’s prohibition, and thus subsidized terror activities.
