Only $2.7 Billion not $270 Billion.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Libyan
government and lawyers for families of
the 270 people killed when Pam Am
Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland
in 1988 have come to a tentative
agreement on a $2.7 billion settlement,
according to documents obtained by
CNN.
The pact hinges on Libyan acceptance of
responsibility for the bombing.
The proposed deal, a copy of which was
obtained by CNN, was sent out to the
families Tuesday. The families still have to
decide whether to accept the terms.
Under the agreement, Libya would pay the $2.7 billion into an escrow account that
would be released in phased segments over 10 months to a year. The families
would not have access to all of the money -- about $10 million per victim -- until
after U.N. and U.S. sanctions are lifted and Libya is removed from the State
Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The first step of the agreement calls for Libya to take certain actions, including
admitting responsibility for the attack and denouncing terrorism. Libya must also
cooperate with future investigations of the bombing. At that point the United
Nations would formally terminate sanctions against Libya, which are currently
under suspension.
Once the U.N. sanctions are lifted, $4 million would be released from an escrow
account to each family.
Once unilateral U.S. sanctions against Libya are lifted, Tripoli would pay an
additional $4 million to each family, with the remaining $2 million to be paid once
Libya is removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Pan Am Flight 103, en route from London to New York, was brought down by a
bomb over the Scottish hamlet of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. All 259 people
on the plane were killed, as well as 11 people on the ground.
Sanctions were placed on Libya after U.S. and British investigators alleged that
Libya was behind the Pan Am disaster. A Libyan intelligence agent was convicted
last year of masterminding the bombing.
The settlement agreement was hammered out by attorneys for the families and a
committee of Libyans authorized by the Libyan government to negotiate. The
victims' representatives have not had direct access to Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi and other government officials, but lawyers for the families have said the
Libyan government was engaged throughout the negotiating process.
A similar settlement between the two sides reached in May failed to materialize
when, after news of the agreement was announced by the families' lawyers, the
Libyan government denied that it had made any official offer of compensation.
This past August British authorities said Libya was ready "in principle" to accept
responsibility for the bombing after a meeting between Gadhafi and the British
Foreign Office minister.
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