Berlin disco bomb verdict due

The La Belle disco was a popular haunt for U.S. servicemen

BERLIN, Germany -- A German court is due to give its verdict at the end of a four year trial of five people suspected of blowing up a Berlin disco in 1986.

Two U.S. servicemen and one Turkish woman died and 230 people were injured when the La Belle disco was blown up in what was then West Berlin.

The United States president at the time, Ronald Reagan, blamed Libya for being behind the explosion, after telex messages had been intercepted from the Libya's East Berlin embassy.

Reagan cited "irrefutable" evidence that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was the brains behind the bombing.

The disco had been a favourite with U.S. soldiers, and prosecutors say, the disco bombing was aimed at an American target full of "unsuspecting, innocent people."

Reagan ordered the bombing of two Libyan cities in retaliation, killing one of Gadhafi's daughters as she slept.

The Berlin court is due to give its verdicts in the murder trials on Tuesday bringing to an end a 10-year investigation.

Prosecutors have sought life sentences for Yassir Chraidi, a Palestinian; Musbah Abdulghasem Eter, who worked for the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin; and two Germans who lived in West Berlin, Ali Chanaa and his ex-wife Verena Chanaa -- who is accused of placing the bomb.

Charges of complicity against Verena's sister, Andrea, are expected to be dropped for lack of evidence.

Chief prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who has worked on the La Belle case from the beginning, says proving his charge of Libyan "state terrorism" in court would strengthen the signal intended by the U.S.' war on terrorism -- that its sponsors will not go unpunished.

"We criminal investigators, too, are conducting the battle against terrorism so often cited in recent days," Mehlis told the Berlin court in his closing arguments.

That battle, he said, is "also aimed against the closest ally of terrorism -- forgetting and denial."

CNN's Bettina Luscher said victims of the blast would look for any proof of Libyan involvement as grounds for claiming compensation.

Prosecutors were aided in bringing their case to court after the unification of Germany, in 1990, when files collected by the former East German spy agency, the Stasi, were made available.

The Stasi had kept tabs on the Libyan embassy in East Berlin.

The material included surveillance records on Eter and Chraidi as they allegedly prepared the bombing, reports on the Libyan embassy's activities by Ali Chanaa, who travelled between East and West Berlin and doubled as a Stasi informant, and receipts for money allegedly paid to the Chanaas that the Stasi secretly photocopied at the Libyan embassy.

Based on Stasi records, prosecutors charge the East Germans knew of preparations for the bombing but did nothing to stop it.

The five suspects were arrested in 1996 in Lebanon, Italy, Greece and Berlin.