La Belle discotheque bombing

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Event.png La Belle discotheque bombing  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
La Belle discotheque bombing.jpg
LocationWest Berlin
Blamed onLibya
TypeBombing.jpg bombing
Deaths3
Injured (non-fatal)229

La Belle discotheque was bombed in West Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, on 5 April 1986 three people were killed and some 230 injured. The disco was commonly frequented by United States soldiers, and two of the dead and 79 of the injured were American servicemen.

A bomb placed under a table near the disk jockey's booth exploded at 1:45am Central European Time killing instantly Nermin Hannay, a Turkish woman, and US Sergeant Kenneth T. Ford. A second American sergeant, James E. Goins, died from his injuries two months later. A number of the victims were left permanently disabled.

Libya was held responsible for the bombing by the US government, and US President Ronald Reagan ordered retaliatory airstrikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya ten days later. The US airstrikes, which reportedly killed at least 15 people, including Muammar Gaddafi's adopted daughter, were said to have been the motive for Libya's alleged bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. (On 31 January 2001, the Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.)

On 13 November 2001 in Berlin, the verdict in the La Belle discotheque bombing case was announced. The court, complaining about the limited willingness of the German and American governments to share intelligence, found that the bombing had been planned by the Libyan secret service and the Libyan Embassy in what was East Berlin.[1]

Blame and retribution

Libya was blamed for the bombing after telex messages had allegedly been intercepted from Libya to the Libyan East Berlin Embassy congratulating them on a job well done.[2] US President Ronald Reagan retaliated by ordering airstrikes against the Libyan capital of Tripoli and city of Benghazi (Operation El Dorado Canyon). At least 30 soldiers and 15 civilians were killed.[3][4]

Trial and conviction

In spite of reports blaming Libya for the attack on the nightclub, no individual was officially accused of the bombing until the 1990 reunification of Germany and the subsequent opening up of the Stasi archives. Stasi files led German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to Musbah Abdulghasem Eter, a Libyan who had worked at the Libyan embassy in East Berlin. Stasi files listed him as an agent, and Mehlis said he was the Libyan spy agency's main contact at the embassy.

Eter and four other suspects were arrested in 1996 in Lebanon, Italy, Greece and Berlin, and put on trial a year later. In 2001 Musbah Abdulghasem Eter, and two Palestinians, Yasser Mohammed Chreidi (or Yassar Al-Shuraidi or Yassir Chraidi) and Ali Chanaa were convicted in Berlin's Landgericht[5] of aiding in murder, and Chanaa's former German wife, Mrs Verena Chanaa, was convicted of murder. They were given sentences of 12 to 14 years in prison.[6]

Prosecutor Mehlis proved beyond reasonable doubt that the three men had assembled the bomb in the Chanaas' flat. The explosive was said to have been brought into West Berlin in a Libyan diplomatic bag.[7] Verena Chanaa and her sister, Andrea Häusler, carried it into the La Belle in a travel bag and left five minutes before it exploded. Ms Häusler was acquitted because it could not be proved that she knew a bomb was in the bag.

Background to the bombing

The judge Peter Marhofer said it was not clear whether Gaddafi or Libyan intelligence had actually ordered the attack, though there were indications that they had. Two weeks before the La Belle discotheque blast, Gaddafi called for Arab assaults on American interests worldwide after a US-Libyan naval clash in the Mediterranean, in which 35 seamen on a Libyan patrol boat in the western Gulf of Sidra were killed in international waters claimed by Libyan government.

Chreidi was eventually extradited from Lebanon to Germany in connection with the bombing. He had been working for the Libyan Peoples' Bureau in East Berlin at the time of the bombing. Chreidi was said to have connections with Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, who used to live in Tripoli and was financed by Libya in the 1980s. Eter was reported to be the Libyan spy agency's point man at the Embassy in East Berlin.[8][9]

Compensation

On 17 August 2003, newspapers reported that Libya had signalled to the German government that it was ready to negotiate compensation for the bombing with lawyers for non-US victims.[10] A year later, on August 10, 2004, Libya concluded an agreement to pay a total of $35 million compensation.[11]

In October 2008, Libya paid $1.5 billion into a fund to compensate relatives of the following:

  1. Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20% of the sum agreed in 2003;
  2. American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
  3. American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and,
  4. Libyan victims of the 1986 United States bombing of Libya.[12]

 

Related Documents

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Call for US to give update on fourth Lockerbie suspectArticle18 December 2022Kathleen NuttFormer Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill: "Britain and America know everything. I want the UK and US to be more open. Libya have offered up Abu Agila Masud. But Masud is smaller beer. The Lord Advocate should find out what progress is being made on bringing Abdullah Senussi to court."
Document:Libya: Fine, but why Britainarticle20 March 2011Brian BarderDavid Cameron seemingly Gung Ho on toppling the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, while Barack Obama takes a back seat

 

The Official Culprit

NameDescription
LibyaLibya has larger proven oil reserves than any other African nation, ranking 9th in the world. It was provided with a lot of bomb making equipment in the late 1970s in the Arms for Libya clandestine weapons deal. NATO airstrikes killed 60,000 Libyan civilians in 2011.
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References

  1. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
  2. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
  3. ↑ 1986: US launches air strikes on Libya| bbc.co.uk
  4. ↑ Apr 14, 1986: U.S. bombs Libya This Day in History
  5. ↑ 39. Große Strafkammer des Landgerichts Berlin
  6. ↑ "The Berlin verdict"
  7. ↑ hrr-strafrecht.de - BGH 5 StR 306/03 - 24. Juni 2004 (LG Berlin) [ = HRRS 2004 Nr. 727 = NJW 2004, 3051; NStZ 2005, 153; NStZ 2005, 35; StV 2005, 87 (L) ]
  8. ↑ Beirut liefert aus : Textarchiv : Berliner Zeitung Archiv
  9. ↑ Entschädigung nach 18 Jahren - Politik - Berliner Morgenpost - Berlin
  10. ↑ La-Belle-Anschlag: Libyen: Entschädigung für deutsche Opfer vereinbart - Politik - FAZ.NET
  11. ↑ "$35 million compensation"
  12. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}

External links

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