© copyright 2005 ANSA

ANSA English Media Service

April 19, 2005

HOLOCAUST: U.S. COURT RULES AGAINST VATICAN BANK

DATELINE: NEW YORK

BODY:

(ANSA) - NEW YORK, April 19 - A federal appeals court in San

Francisco on Monday ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by

Holocaust survivors who are suing the Vatican Bank for having

laundered assets seized from Jews in Croatia during the World

War II.

The appeals court overruled a decision by a lower court which

had dismissed the lawsuit on grounds that such historical claims

should be addressed to foreign policy rather than lawsuits.

The Holocaust survivors initially filed the lawsuit in 1999

against the Vatican Bank and the Franciscan Order on charges

that the Vatican Bank had received assets looted from victims of

Croatia's pro-Nazi Ustasha regime between 1941 and 1945. (ANSA).

(CP/krc)

LOAD-DATE: April 19, 2005