THE family of a foreign student who died after 21 years in a coma following a brawl on Wearside are to receive inheritance from their son's estate.

A six-figure sum will be paid to Hassan Musa's family, in Libya, after they were traced by a North-East firm of solicitors.

The brilliant student was left paralysed and with permanent brain damage after being attacked in a car park near the former Painted Wagon pub, in Holmeside, Sunderland, in July 1978.

Hassan, a 23-year-old student from Chelmsford, Essex, was visiting friends on Wearside when he was caught up in a pitched battle outside the pub.

He spent 20 years in various Sunderland hospitals, before being transferred to a nursing home in Liverpool.

He died from pneumonia in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, in September 1999, aged 44. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

In January last year, a London research company was employed by Scanlans solicitors, on Wearside, to piece together Hassan's family history, so it could hand over the cash to his family in North Africa.

The money has been held in trust since the 1980s.

At the Crown Court trial that followed the attack on Hassan, three men were jailed for a total of 11 years for their part in a racist brawl.

One of those convicted has since died and the others have served their sentences. The longest sentence served was four years, for grievous bodily harm.