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.

The United States charged her in 2013 with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals abroad, resulting in death. The charges were unsealed in 2017, and she remains the only woman on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list. The US State Department has offered a US $5 million reward for information leading to her arrest since 2018. Jordan has refused to extradite her.

“This lawsuit places Tamimi under legal pressure in an American court for the first time. We hope the case will also draw public attention to the fact that the US criminal prosecution has remained stalled for more than a decade,” Arnold Roth said.

“It’s incomprehensible and deeply troubling to us that in all these years, no US official has explained to us as Malki’s family or to the public how it is that Tamimi continues to enjoy a free life in Jordan, a US partner country. Justice for Malki and the other Sbarro victims, already thwarted for years, demands answers and accountability. We hope this lawsuit is only the beginning.”

NJAC litigator Rachel Sebbag said finding Tamimi had been the challenge after the complaint was filed.

“This is a woman who has evaded extradition to the US for over a decade, since her release from an Israeli prison,” she said. “Al-Tamimi has been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 2013, but she sits in Jordan, where she is regularly honoured and celebrated for her heinous actions. The time is long past for Al-Tamimi to face the legal consequences of her acts of terror, and the American government ought to demand her immediate extradition from Jordan.”

NJAC litigation counsel David Benger said, “Terrorists cannot hide from American courts behind a border or a foreign government’s protection.”

Last month, Roth questioned the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s statement that Tamimi’s case had been raised during King Abdullah II’s visit to Canberra, saying he had not been told what was said.