US court approves legally serving Malki Roth’s killer

The family of Australian-born terror victim Malki Roth has won approval from a US court to serve legal papers on Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who planned the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem, through a Jordanian newspaper and social media.

On Monday, the US District Court for the District of Columbia authorised the plaintiffs’ lawyers to serve Tamimi by emailing the court documents to Etar, a Jordanian-Palestinian newspaper for which she writes a regular column, and by publishing them on X. The papers were also emailed to her last known lawyer.

The civil case was filed on August 11 under the US Anti-Terrorism Act by Malki’s estate and her parents, Frimet and Arnold Roth. The family is represented by the National Jewish Advocacy Centre (NJAC) and the Schoen Law Firm.

Malki, who was born in Melbourne, was 15 when she was killed in the August 9, 2001 bombing, which killed 16 people, including three Americans, and injured about 130 others.

Tamimi was convicted in Israel and sentenced to multiple life terms, but was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange with Hamas. She has since lived openly in Jordan.