TEL AVIV – The Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center announced that it intends to file a class action lawsuit in the coming days, suing China for trillions over alleged negligence involving its handling of the novel coronavirus, Hebrew-language media reported.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. because “most other countries are scared of the implications of China’s economic muscle,” the NGO’s legal representative Aviel Leitner said.
It is the latest in a string of similar lawsuits filed in U.S. courts against China.
Shurat Hadin, which usually specializes in terror groups and state-sponsored terrorism, claimed that China has acted unlawfully and that, like terrorism, it cannot hide behind sovereign immunity.
“If it is determined that China has acted negligently, the consequences for it may be devastating,” Leitner said.
China is facing increased global pressure to bear the consequences of the epidemic that began within its borders, including a call for a UN investigation into the circumstances surrounding the pandemic’s genesis in Wuhan.
The communist state is also being taken to task for not doing enough to contain the virus and not warning other countries and international bodies such as the WHO of the gravity of the situation.
In the lawsuit, China is accused of silencing whistle blowers, such as the late Dr. Li Wenliang who died from the virus at age 34, for attempting to sound the alarm.
It has not yet been determined whether the virus first emerged in a food market, as maintained by Chinese authorities, or if it may have been developed in a laboratory in Wuhan – a claim that was denied by the lab, according to a report published Saturday in The Hill.
The lawsuit also accuses China of blocking medical teams from accessing and researching the virus’s epicenter in Wuhan.
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