‘Bribe’ lets Gaddafi off the hook, say victim’s parents

FAMILIES of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster gave a mixed reaction yesterday to news of the compensation deal.

Americans Dan and Susan Cohen, who lost their only daughter, 20-year-old Theodora, in the bombing, said they will only accept part of the money on offer.

The couple, who live in New Jersey, blasted the settlement as a "bribe" and said they would only accept the first €3.5 million on offer.

Mr Cohen, 67, said: "If we were wealthy people, we would turn the whole thing down but we're not."

The couple said they would take the initial €3.5m, which is due to be paid once the UN sanctions, imposed on Libya in 1992, are ended.

They will turn down two other stages of payments €3.5m which is due to come if the US lifts its own sanctions and €1.75m if it drops Libya from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Mr Cohen said: "The second payments will be worth a total of €5.25m but we won't be touching that.

"We won't take a dime of that money and we've given those instructions to our lawyer."

Mrs Cohen, 65, said that while the statement of responsibility was important, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was "being let off the hook" in terms of the lifting of sanctions.

She said: "This is a kind of scam, it's no kind of punishment for a man who blew up an American plane.

"We are taking the first lot of money because we are old, don't have a lot of money and our only child isn't here.

"But for us the issue is not the money, the issue is the statement of responsibility.

"People say to us 'why don't you take all the money and give it to charity?' but it's blood money, it's an out and out bribe."

Mr Cohen added: "We lost our only child in the bombing and that also robbed us of our future grandchildren, it robs you of your future."

American Bruce Smith, a former Pan Am pilot, lost his English-born wife Ingrid, 31, as she flew to join him for Christmas in the United States.

He is set to reject part if not all of the settlement and was angry that the deal was linked to lifting of US sanctions which were imposed in 1986 two years before the Lockerbie bombing.

He and other US families were due to attend a briefing by the State Department in Washington DC today at which officials will outline details of the deal.