The American trial lawyer Melvin Belli began collecting evidence in Israel today to support a $20 million suit against Air France on behalf of the relatives of 16 Puerto Rican tourists killed in the Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion Airport) massacre of May 31, 1972.
The suit charges that lax security measures by the French air line enabled three heavily armed Japanese Red Army terrorists to board its flight to Israel that day undetected. The terrorists swept the passenger terminal with machinegun fire killing 36 people before two of them were gunned down and the third, Kozo Okamoto, was captured.
If the suit is successful, the families of the 20 Israeli victims may also sue Air France. Belli will receive depositions from Israel’s former Ambassador to France Asher Ben Natan who had warned the French authorities about the inadequacies of security precautions by Air France. The suit charges that the warnings were ignored.
Labor Alignment leader Shimon Peres, who was Minister of Communications in 1972, has also agreed to give a deposition. Belli may seek one from an expert on international terrorism. He is believed to have in mind Rehavem Ze’evi, who was advisor to former Premier Yitzhak Rabin on counterterrorist warfare. Associates of Belli have visited Okamoto in jail where he is serving a life sentence. He has signed a statement admitting his participation in the massacre.
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