Swiss businessman claims key Lockerbie evidence was faked

[JohnyCanuck]

August 28 2007 at 01:37AM

Zurich - A Swiss businessman on Monday claimed that a key piece of evidence in the Lockerbie trial was faked, following a French press report that one of his employees had lied to Scottish investigators.

Edwin Bollier, head of the Swiss-based Mebo group, told reporters that one of his employees had supplied Scottish investigators with a stolen timing device, which was then presented in the trial as having been found amidst the plane's wreckage.

Mebo makes electronic equipment for the security forces.

In fact, Mebo employee Ulrich Lumpert has now admitted that the device he handed over to Scottish investigators was one he himself had stolen from the company, rather than part of a batch delivered to Libya in the 1980s.


"The exhibits were manipulated and used to make a link between Libya and the attack," Bollier told reporters.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20070827213616753C102824

[acmavm]

1. Hmmm. I don't know what to think about all of this...

<snip>

"I stole a prototype MST-13 timing device... Gave it without permission on June 22, 1989, to a person who was officially investigating the Lockerbie affair," Lumpert said in the new statement, Le Figaro reported.

"When I realised that the MST-13 had been used ill-advisedly, I decided to stay silent, as it could have been extremely dangerous for me," he added.

Lumpert did not explain the motives behind his actions.

The conviction of the former Libyan agent remains shrouded in controversy, with many campaigners and relatives of the Lockerbie victims instead pointing the finger of blame at an Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. immunity?

statute of limitations?

accessory after the fact to mass murder?

too busy reading about Larry Craig to care, though

[northzax]

3. this seems odd to me

didn't Libya basically cop to this?

and I wonder when Lumpert 'gave' the device to Scottish Investigators, and how he knows that that particular device was used in the trial (since the only parts of the timing device found was a part of circuit board embedded in the collar of a shirt. Megrahi was linked to the bombing through his clothing, not just the timer.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. The Guardian Report on the story today, Sunday Sep 2nd.

Vital Lockerbie evidence 'was tampered with'

Fragments of bomb timer that helped to convict a Libyan ex-agent were 'practically carbonised' before the trial, says bankrupt Swiss businessman

Alex Duval Smith, Europe correspondent
Sunday September 2, 2007

Bollier, now 70, admits having done business with Libya. 'Two years before Lockerbie, we sold 20 MST-13 timers to the Libyan military. FBI agents and the Scottish investigators said one of those timers had been used to detonate the bomb. We were shown a fuzzy photograph and I confirmed the fragments looked as though they came from one of our timers.'

However, Bollier was uneasy with the photograph he had been shown and asked to see the fragments. He was finally given permission in 1998 and travelled to Dumfries to see the evidence.

'I was shown fragments of a brown circuit board which matched our prototype. But when the MST-13 went into production, the timers contained green boards. I knew that the timers sold to Libya had green boards. I told the investigators this.'

Back in Switzerland, Bollier's company was in effect bankrupt, having faced a lawsuit from Pan Am and having lost major clients, such as the German federal police to which Mebo supplied communications equipment.

SNIP

Few people apart from conspiracy theorists (emphasis added /jc) and investigative journalists working on the case were prepared to believe Bollier until the end of last month, when Lumpert, one of his former employees, walked into a Zurich police station and asked to swear an affidavit before a notary.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2160655,00.html

Darn those conspiracy theorists anyway. Just where do they get their crazy ideas from. LOL