June 7



USA:

Supreme Court: Americans can sue foreign governments


The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Americans can sue foreign governments
over looted art, stolen property and war crimes dating to the 1930s, a
victory for an elderly California woman trying to get back $150 million
worth of paintings stolen by the Nazis more than 65 years ago.

Justices said that the governments are not protected from lawsuits in U.S.
courts over old claims.

Maria Altmann, who fled Austria, had attended the Supreme Court argument
and said justices were one of her last hopes for the return of six Gustav
Klimt paintings, including two colorful, impressionistic portraits of her
aunt.

She filed a lawsuit against the Austrian government in federal court in
California, and won rulings that allowed her to pursue the case.

Justices agreed 6-3, a ruling that emboldens victims of wartime atrocities
to pursue lawsuits. Women who claim they were used as sex slaves during
World War II have sued Japan, and Holocaust survivors and heirs have
brought a case against the French national railroad for transporting more
than 70,000 Jews and others to Nazi concentration camps. Those cases are
pending at the Supreme Court.

(source: Associated Press)