London - The Palestine Liberation Organisation is to pay compensation to the family of American Leon Klinghoffer, shot dead during the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985, a lawyer for the PLO said yesterday. Mr Ramsay Clarke told the BBC World Service that lawyers for the Klinghoffer family had reached agreement with him on an out-of-court settlement of their civil suit against the PLO.
Palestinian guerrillas seized the Italian cruise ship in 1985 and held the 400 people on board hostage. Klinghoffer, an elderly and crippled New York Jew, was the only person to die in the incident. He was shot while he sat in his wheelchair and his body was thrown into the sea. - (Reuter)