France's highest court of appeal Tuesday refused to authorize a criminal investigation into Libyan leader Moammer Kadhafi over his alleged role in the destruction of a DC-10 airliner over Niger in 1989.
The Court de Cassation in Paris ruled that it was against "international custom" to try a foreign head of state, and it ordered the investigation definitively closed.
Relatives of the 170 people who died on board the UTA airliner filed a suit against Kadhafi in 1999, shortly after a court found six members of the Libyan intelligence service guilty in absentia – PARIS (AFP)
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