Canadian victims of  Hizbullah terror attacks have filed a precedent setting civil action in the Quebec Superior Court against the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) in Montreal. The plaintiffs, all of whom were injured in Northern Israel in  Katyusha rocket attacks, allege that LCB unlawfully provided financial services to the Hizbullah terrorist organization  by  allowing charity groups affiliated with Hizbullah to transfer funds prior to and during the terrorist attacks on Israeli cities in 2006.

The law suit contends that since 2004, LCB permitted the Yousser Company for Finance and Investment  and the and Martyrs Foundation, two  Lebanese terrorist groups, to open and maintain accounts at LCB, and to freely transfer many millions of dollars of Hizbullah funds and to carry out millions of dollars in financial transactions, within and without Lebanon, by means of wire transfers, letters of credit, checks and credit cards provided by LCB. LCB, it is charged, facilitated Hizbullah’s terrorist activities and is  liable to the plaintiffs for the harm that has been inflicted upon them and their families in the rockets attacks.

This is the first civil action brought by Canadian victims of Hizbullah’s rocket attacks in a Canadian court.

The plaintiffs are Sara Yefet, Shoshana Sapir and Rochelle and Oz Shalmani.

The families are represented by Montreal attorney Jeffrey Boro, Professor Ed Morgan of the University of Toronto’s International Law and Counter-Terrorism Project and attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Israel.

The plaintiffs claim that Hizbullah used the financial services which it was provided by LCB in order to build its terrorist infrastructure, to train, pay and equip its terrorist operatives, and to carry out terrorist attacks. LCB’s management, officers and employees had full knowledge that Yousser and Martyrs are part of Hizbullah’s financial arm and that the financial services were being provided to a violent terrorist organization.

Both Yousser and Martyrs have been designated by the U.S. Treasury as terrorist organizations. The fact that the two groups are part of Hizbullah’s financial arm is notorious public knowledge in Lebanon.

According to attorney Darshan-Leitner: “LCB knew that both charities are part of Hizbullah’s financial arm and that by providing them banking services they were really assisting the Iranian backed terrorists in Lebanon and their rocket attacks against civilians. How in 2006 in the midst of a  deadly Middle East war does any responsible bank transfer any funds to something called the `Martyr’s Foundation’ in Lebanon?  This law suit is only the beginning of the uncovering of Hizbullah’s extensive financial network in Canada.”

(YWN Israel News Desk)