Nitsana Darshan Leitner

Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center

When we posted on Monday’s Washington, DC  federal district court mega-millions award to the family of the late Danny Wultz we  hadn’t identified the legal team who had brought this successful  action.

The Wultz claim was brought by the Shurat HaDin Israel law Center of Tel Aviv  headed by Nitsana Darshan Leitner and US co-counsel  New York attorney Robert Tolchin. 

We  previously posted on the successful legal effort by the Israel law Center that contributed significantly to the fizzled 2011 Free Gaza  Flotilla episode.   In 2006, the Israel Law Center successfully served  a subpoena  on former Iranian President  Sayyid Mohammad Khatami  at a CAIR dinner in northern Virginia representing a matter concerning  seven Iranian Jews who ‘disappeared’ in the Islamic  kidnapped and tortured by the Islamic Republic. At the time Khatami was visiting  the US on a good will tour that included presentation at Harvard, the University of Virginian and the National Cathedral  In Washington.

 A release by Shurat HaDin provided background on the Wultz family  successful federal court decision:

The family was represented by New York attorney Robert Tolchin and Tel Aviv attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

On August 22, 2008, Plaintiffs filed a Complaint against the Syrian Arab Republic and Islamic Republic of Iran pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act’s terrorism exception, 28 U.S.C. § 1605A in the US district court in Washington D.C. On February 27th and 29th, 2012 the Wultzes presented their evidence before Judge Royce Lamberth. Called to give testimony concerning Syria’s support for the terrorist PIJ were several terrorism experts, including a former senior officer in Israeli military intelligence. On May 14, 2012, the 6th year anniversary of Daniel Wultz’ death the district court handed down its decision awarding the Wultzes $332 million in compensatory and punitive damages against the Syrian defendants for their liability in the murder of Daniel Wultz.

In its decision the court wrote: “The nature of the defendants’ acts and the nature and extent of the harm defendants intentionally caused are among the most heinous the Court can fathom . . . The evidence shows that the defendants lacked any semblance of remorse for this deadly attack – and in fact, encouraged and supported this and similar attacks.”

According to attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Israel Law Center – Shurat HaDin: “For the first time the government of Syria has been found liable by a federal court in the United States for its decades long support of the Islamic terrorist organizations that target innocent civilians in Israel with suicide bombings. The Palestine Islamic Jihad was headquartered in Damascus and Syrian officials provided it other material support and funding to facilitate the murderous attacks. This court decisions shows that even outlaw regimes like the one in Damascus can have the rule of law imposed upon them.”

A parallel lawsuit has been filed in New York against the Bank of China for providing financial services to the PIJ prior to the 2006 bombing.

A copy of the court decision is available here:
May 2012 Decision Against Syria

Kol Hakavod (outstanding in Hebrew) to Nitsana Darshan Leitner of the Israel Law Center and US co-counsel, Robert Tolchin.