French missile caused Ustica disaster - Amato

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 2 - Ex-premier Giuliano Amato has said that a French missile was behind the mysterious 1980 Ustica plane crash that left 81 people dead.
    Amato said the Dc9 Bologna-Palermo flight operated by the now-defunct Itavia airline that crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica on June 27, 1980, was hit in an attempt to assassinate late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
    "A plan was hatched to hit the aeroplane that Gaddafi was travelling on," Amato told Saturday's edition of daily newspaper La Repubblica.
    "But the Libyan leader evaded the trap because he was warned by (late Italian Socialist Party leader and ex-premier Bettino) Craxi.
    "Now the Elysee Palace can wash off the dishonour that weighs on (the conscience of) Paris".
    Daria Bonfietti, the president of the association of relatives of victims of the disaster, welcomed the revelation.
    "These words are important and this is a correct reconstruction of everything that is in the documents (regarding the case), which we have known for years," Bonfietti said.
    The crash, which claimed the lives of 13 children, has been the object of numerous investigations, legal actions and accusations, including claims of conspiracy. (ANSA).