A federal judge on Thursday allowed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia by families of 9/11 victims to proceed, marking a blow to the country’s efforts to block legal proceedings alleging it helped carry out the deadly terrorist attack.

United States District Judge George Daniels in the Southern District of New York rejected the Saudi government’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, writing in an order that plaintiffs have “reasonable evidence” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used two Saudi men to “assist the hijackers.” Omar al Bayoumi and Fahad al Thumairy are named in the lawsuit as links to the radical Islamic al Qaeda hijackers who rammed planes into New York City’s two World Trade Center towers over two decades ago, killing nearly 3,000 people.

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