Three Billion Dollar Lawsuit Filed Against Libya for Terrorist Bombing of French Airliner, Killing 170.

Business Editors/Legal Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2002

Families of the seven Americans killed in the September 19, 1989 terrorist bombing of French airliner UTA Flight 772 filed a lawsuit today against Libya and its leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi for the bombing, which occurred 9 months after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya's role in the sabotage bombings of the two jumbo jets resulted in criminal convictions of Libyan officials and agents under French and Scottish law, economic sanctions by the United Nations, and diplomatic isolation of the Qadhafi regime.

The case was filed in the federal district court in Washington, DC, and seeks $3.0 Billion in compensatory damages, as well as unspecified punitive damages, for the deaths of the seven Americans and related injuries to their families caused by a suitcase bomb stored in the luggage hold of the DC-10 jumbo jet. UTA Flight 772 blew up over the Niger, Africa desert while en route from Brazzaville, Congo to Paris, after making a stopover in Chad. The bomb killed all 170 passengers and crew aboard, including the seven Americans, and completely destroyed the airliner. Among the American victims was Bonnie Barnes Pugh, wife of Robert Pugh, then U.S. Ambassador to Chad.

This case was made possible by 1996 amendments to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, by which Congress permitted lawsuits against designated foreign states such as Libya that perpetrate or provide material support for terrorist acts that result in personal injury or death to an American citizen. While the law does not extend to non-U.S. citizens, the lawsuit has the support of the French, African and other national victim families. The case is similar to the one brought in New York against Libya by the families of the victims of Pan Am 103 which, according to press reports, the Libyan government is attempting to settle in order to end the economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

Stuart H. Newberger, lead counsel for the seven families, said: "After years of watching Libya dodge any meaningful responsibility for this act of mass-murder, the American families have decided to hold Colonel Qadhafi and his cohorts accountable in a court of law. Fortunately, U.S. law will allow the families to seek closure on this tragic event." Six high-ranking officials of Libya who are named as defendants in the case were tried and convicted for the bombing in absentia by the French criminal court in Paris in 1999. While Libya has said that it will not extradite the six to France, it did take responsibility for paying the fines imposed on them by the French courts.