In 1987, Manfred Ganschow, the head of the West German team investigating the bombing, said that there was no evidence pointing towards Libya, a belief which was corroborated by numerous intelligence agencies in Europe at the time, according to a BBC report.

[1] The site of the bombing, a discothèque known as La Belle, was known to be a popular spot for American troops in West Germany.

[8] The explosion instantly killed a Turkish woman, Nermin Hannay, and US Army Sergeant Kenneth T. Ford.

[2][1][6] In spite of reports blaming Libya for the attack on the nightclub, no individual was officially accused of the bombing until the 1990 reunification of Germany and the subsequent opening up of the Stasi archives.

[2] Stasi files listed him as an agent, and Mehlis said he was the Libyan spy agency's main contact at the embassy.

Yasser Mohammed Chreidi, a Palestinian man accused of being the plot's "mastermind", was extradited from Lebanon to Germany on May 24 in connection with the bombing.

[3] Chreidi was said to be a "suspected activist of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council" headed by Abu Nidal,[3] who used to live in Tripoli and was financed by Libya in the 1980s.

[2][1][6] On 17 August 2003, newspapers reported that Libya had signaled to the German government that it was ready to negotiate compensation for the bombing with lawyers for non-U.S.

[24] A year later, on 10 August 2004, Libya concluded an agreement to pay a total of $35 million compensation to non-US citizens.