Libya offers £2bn for Lockerbie bombing
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Libya is willing to pay close to £2bn to the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after accepting "civil responsibility" for the explosion over Scotland, the Libyan Foreign Minister said yesterday.
Abdel-Rahman Shalqam said the payout was agreed during negotiations last month between lawyers representing the families of the victims of Pan Am flight 103 and the state of Libya.
He said the family of each of the 270 victims would receive just over £6m in three instalments, but it was conditional on the lifting of UN sanctions. After the first payment of £2.5m, sanctions would have to be lifted, he said, and after the final payment Washington would be expected to remove Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. There was no confirmation from Washington or London.
According to UN resolutions, Libya must acknowledge responsibility for the explosion, pay fair compensation, renounce terrorism and disclose all it knows about the attack. It was not clear whether Mr Shalqam's announcement that Libya would "bear the civil responsibility for the actions of its employees" would suffice as acknowledgment of responsibility. But Mr Shalqam was optimistic and said Libya would "work hard to draw an end" to the issue.
A Libyan intelligence agent, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, is serving a life sentence in Scotland for the bombing.