Gadhafi will not face bomb charge

Gadhafi: will not be prosecuted

PARIS, France -- France's highest court ruled on Tuesday that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi could not be prosecuted for the 1989 bombing of a French DC-10 airliner over Niger that killed 170 people.

Overturning an earlier decision by a lower court to strip Gadhafi of diplomatic immunity in the case, the powerful Cour de Cassation asserted that as a head of state, Gadhafi was safe from trial in France.

UTA Flight 772 from Brazzaville to Paris exploded in mid-air at a time of high tension between Libya and France over Chad, where the two countries' armies clashed repeatedly in the 1970s and 1980s.

Relatives of the victims of the Niger bombing took action against the Libyan leader after a 10-year investigation led in 1999 to a French court sentencing six Libyans, including Gadhafi's brother-in-law, to life imprisonment in absentia.

In a landmark decision last October, an appeals court rejected an argument from state prosecutors that Gadhafi enjoyed immunity as a serving head of state.

The prosecutor's office appealed against the ruling and Tuesday's decision by the Cour de Cassation's is final.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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