Libya forges US compensation deal

Agreement reached on compensating victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli.

Libya president Muammar Gaddafi lockerbie
Libya is yet to pay the full compensation to families of Lockerbie victims [GETTY/IMAGES]
“Both parties affirmed their desire to work together to resolve all outstanding claims in good faith and expeditiously through the establishment of a fair compensation mechanism.”
 
Libya reportedly sought the global settlement talks out of concern over US legislation that gave terror victims greater ability to collect damages from governments by having their assets frozen, one US official
told Reuters.
 
‘No specific amount’
 
The settlements will also address victims of a 1986 Berlin disco bombing that killed two US servicemen and the 1989 suitcase bombing of a French airliner over Niger that killed 170 people.
 
A US judge in January had ordered Libya to pay billions of dollars in damages to relatives of Americans killed in the 1989 airliner case.
 
However, Libya did not propose a specific dollar amount when it mooted the prospect of a comprehensive settlement in March, state department officials told AP.
 
Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan president, had agreed to compensate the families of Lockerbie victims $10 million but so far only $8 million has been paid per victim.
 
The settlement could speed up the resolution of such legal lawsuits and put back on track the Libyan leader’s deal in 2003 to surrender Libya’s weapons of mass destruction in return for improved relations with the US.
 
The US restored diplomatic ties with Libya two years ago and removed Libya from the state department’s list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
Source: News Agencies