Pakistan Press International Information Services Limited

Wednesday, October 4, 2000

Foreign-Swiss Bank-Law suit

Vienna, Oct. 4, (PPI): A new class action lawsuit has been filed
against the Swiss National Bank relating to the Holocaust era. This
time, however, it is on behalf of 12 million non-Jewish civilians who
are not covered by previous agreements, Swiss Radio International said
Wednesday.

The suit filed in San Francisco concerns civilian victims of the Nazis
from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The lawyers acting on
behalf of the plaintiffs, Thomas Easton and Jonathan Levy
claim these people were unjustly excluded from the original Swiss
Banks settlement worth dlrs 1.25 billion (SFr 2 billion), agreed with
Jewish groups.

Levy told Swiss Radio International "this all should have been settled
as part of the main lawsuit, but because of political manipulation by
the Jewish organisations - non-Jews were cut out of the class action."

The class action seeks compensation for wartime transaction, valued at
SFr 1.7 billion, carried out by the Swiss National Bank with its
counterpart in Nazi Germany.

Levy said the plaintiffs were asking that this amount be studied, and
that a smaller sum-of around SFr 200 million- be awarded to them.

Easton and Levy accuse the Swiss of ultimately prolonging the Second
World War by providing much-needed foreign currency for the Nazis.

They allege that the Swiss National Bank and other Swiss banks allowed
the Nazis to exchange looted assets from non-Jews -including gold and
silver collected from forced labourers, occupied territories and
concentration camps- for hard currency.