[Marxism] Lockerbie evidence faked?

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday French conservative daily Le Figaro published a report saying that a 
key piece of evidence in the Lockerbie case was faked:
<http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20070827.FIG000000327_lockerbie_un_temoin_capital_affirme_avoir_menti.html>

As far as I can see from a quick Google news search this has not been reported 
by the British or US mainstream press, yet. French news agency AFP carried the 
item in its English service, which got coverage in South Africa:
<http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20070827213616753C102824>
(Appended below)

In the German press liberal Berliner Zeitung and conservative Frankfurter 
Allgemeine Zeitung had own reports:
<http://www.faz.net/s/RubDDBDABB9457A437BAA85A49C26FB23A0/Doc~E6CC5F02CD64942F8AF7197B74E0BE5F1~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html>
<http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/print/politik/681747.html> 

I dont think we are getting to know the truth about Lockerbie now, my gut 
feeling rather says me some secret services are trying to get even more profit 
out of Lockerbie: Libya has payed and has given up even the anti-imperialist 
rhetoric, so it comes convenient to put the blame on Syria (through the 
PFLP-GC) or Iran (through the "Guardians of the Islamic Revolution"). 

Johannes

AFP report through www.iol.co.za

Man claims key Lockerbie evidence was faked
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.

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 
1988, killing 270 people in what was Britain's worst terrorist atrocity.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was 
convicted by a trio of Scottish judges sitting in a special court in the 
Netherlands in 2001 of being behind the blast, and was jailed for a total of 27 
years.

Lumpert was also a witness at Megrahi's trial.

Monday's edition of Le Figaro reported that he had now gone back on his story 
in a sworn declaration to a Zurich court.

"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.

In June, Megrahi won the right to a new appeal against his sentence in the 
Scottish courts, after the independent Scottish Criminal Cases Review 
Commission found he "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice" at his 2001 
trial. - Sapa-AFP


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