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FBI Experts Believe Videotape Showed Higgins

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From Associated Press

The FBI said today that its experts believe the body hanging from a rope in a videotape released last week by Lebanese terrorists is likely that of hostage Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, but offered no judgment about the time and cause of death.

An agency statement said “a judgment has been made within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the person depicted in the videotape is dead.”

“Although a positive identification could not be made, numerous observable characteristics were noted, indicating that the person depicted in the videotape is Higgins,” the FBI said. “This judgment was made by forensic experts and pathologists.”

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Law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the only way the FBI could deliver a completely positive identification would be to have Higgins’ remains or other physical evidence, such as fingerprints.

Higgins, head of a 75-member U.N. peacekeeping team, was kidnaped in south Lebanon on Feb. 17, 1988. His captors claimed last Monday that he had been hanged in retaliation for Israel’s refusal to release a kidnaped Muslim cleric.

A videotape of a figure, hanging by his neck, bound and gagged, was released that day.

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