NEWARK, NJ – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was today presented with an award from the families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 for the work the Senator has done throughout his career in seeking justice on their behalf. Flight 103 was destroyed by a terrorist bomb on December 21, 1988, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew—including 34 New Jerseyans—as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

“For almost three decades, families who lost loved ones on Pan Am 103, like the 34 families in New Jersey, have been waiting for justice, and I have been waiting and working alongside them,” said Sen. Menendez. “I know that justice has not been fully served and I again told family members of the victims today that I will never forget their loved ones and that I will continue to fight to ensure all leads are pursued so we find the truth together.”

The award was presented to Senator Menendez by Mary Kay Stratis, who lost her husband, and Joan Dater, who lost her daughter, in the 1988 attack. Stratis’ husband of 20 years and college sweetheart, Elia Stratis, was on the flight planning to return from a business trip from Germany and the Netherlands. The Stratis’ met at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in 1965, were married in 1969 and purchased a home in Montvale, N.J. (more on Mary Kay and Elia Stratis can be found here, courtesy of FDU Magazine).

Joan Dater’s daughter, Gretchen Joyce Dater, was just 20 years old and a student at Syracuse University-Maryland Institute of Art. She was on her way home to Ramsay, N.J.

(In the three-person photo: Mary Kay Stratis is on the left of Senator Menendez, Joan Dater is on the right)

Background:

In January 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of the terrorist act and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On August 20, 2009, al-Megrahi was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds, as he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. Following al-Megrahi’s release in 2009, Senator Menendez chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigation looking into the troubling circumstances surrounding the release, and held a hearing on the issue on September 29, 2010.

In December 2010, Menendez, along with U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, released a report entitled “Justice Undone: The Release of The Lockerbie Bomber.” The report concluded (1) that al-Megrahi’s three-months-to-live prognosis was unwarranted and, thus, that the basis for his release on compassionate grounds was unjustified; (2) that political and commercial interests motivated both Libya and the UK, including the real threat of commercial warfare by the Libyan government against the UK; (3) that al-Megrahi’s release violated a 1998 justice agreement with the U.S. that was meant to keep anyone convicted of the Lockerbie bombing inside of Scotland; and (4) that al-Megrahi should be returned to prison.

Al-Megrahi died on May 20, 2012.

###