Bush signs bill for Pan Am 103 settlement

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush has signed legislation that allows Libya to settle lawsuits by the families of U.S. victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing.

Under the bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Libya will receive immunity from additional lawsuits once it deposits $800 million in a compensation fund, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The president signed the bill Monday.

The Pan Am plane blew up Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and several people on the ground. Many of the passengers were U.S. college students returning from Europe.

Kara Weipz, president of Victims of Pan Am 103, was a 15-year-old high school student in Cherry Hill, N.J., when her brother, Rick Monetti, was killed in the bombing. Weipz, like other survivors, told the Inquirer that she welcomes the settlement.

"This says, 'If you commit terror and get caught, it's going to cost you a lot,'" she said.

Bob Monetti, her father, said that he wants "the whole thing to be over."