Libya to pay $35m to 1986 bomb victims

Libya has agreed to compensate more than 160 non-US victims of the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub, the Libyan ambassador…

Libya has agreed to compensate more than 160 non-US victims of the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub, the Libyan ambassador to Germany has said.

The agreement should help the oil-rich North African nation end its pariah status and improve its ties with the European Union, whose trade and aid partnership with Mediterranean countries it wants to join.

"The memorandum will be signed tonight in Berlin. The volume is $35 million," Mr Said Abdulaati said.

A formal contract will be signed in two weeks in Tripoli.

READ MORE

The lawyers representing the victims declined to comment on the ambassador's statement.

The German government had no comment yet, a spokesman said.

Two US soldiers and a Turkish woman were killed and more than 200 people were injured by the explosion at La Belle, a disco popular with US soldiers.

A German court ruled in 2001 that the Libyan secret service was behind the bombing and convicted four people, including a former Libyan diplomat.

German lawyers and members of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's charitable foundation have been negotiating a deal covering the more than 160 non-American victims of the attack and the relatives of the Turkish woman killed.

Payouts to US victims and their families are the subject of separate legal action in the United States.