Kin of terror victim to get $156 million

December 09, 2004|Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas were ordered yesterday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager shot and killed by terrorists in the West Bank.

A federal jury deliberated for one day before awarding $52 million in damages to the parents of David Boim, who was shot down at a bus stop outside Jerusalem eight years ago. US Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys then tripled the damages.

Joyce and Stanley Boim, parents of the slain teenager, showed no emotion as the jurors announced the verdict. But attorneys for the family smiled broadly.

In a summary decision before the trial started, the judge had found the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, as well as the Islamic Association for Palestine and alleged Hamas fund-raiser Mohammed Salah, liable in Boim's death.

The jury found that the Quranic Literacy Institute of Oak Lawn, Ill., a group that translates Islamic religious texts, also was responsible for the shooting.

The Boims, Americans who moved to Israel in 1985, sued under a US law that allows victims of terrorism abroad to collect damages in American courts from organizations that furnish money to terrorist groups.