MEBO report brings new theories:

19/11/99 In the light of the recent Scottish investigation reports in the media, the chairman of MEBO Ag. has sent following comments:

The latter report contains new evidence of the alleged Toshiba Bombeat radio-recorder that was said to contain the bomb on PA 103, as well as thoughts around the identity mismatch of a passenger aboard the plane. And why is the crash of Pan Am 103 still classified with the military security level "National Security" in the US, although being a civil airline crash ???

Three judges named for Lockerbie bombing trial

18/11/99 THE SCOTSMAN - Scotlands leading newspaper THE three Scottish High Court judges who will hear the Lockerbie bombing trial in the Netherlands were named yesterday. The appointment of Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean, with Lord Abernethy as a substitute, was seen as an indication that arrangements for the trial, scheduled to begin on 2 February, were continuing in spite of a preliminary hearing in the case next week.

Yesterday, the Scottish Court Service announced that Lord Cullen, the Lord Justice-Clerk, had appointed the four judges who will be involved in the Lockerbie trial. The task of delivering verdicts, which can be by a majority, will lie with three of the judges, Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and MacLean. The fourth, Lord Abernethy, will sit with his colleagues and can take part in their deliberations, but will not vote in any decision, either on such things as the admissibility of evidence or the verdicts. However, should one of the three judges die or fall ill, Lord Abernethy will be asked to take over a full role.

``We've got a team of very experienced judges here. Really the top people in Scotland,'' Alistair Bonnington at the University of Glasgow's Lockerbie briefing centre, told Reuters. ``Because there is no jury, the trial is likely to be very technical and full of legal points. And one common link between all the judges chosen is that they are all considered excellent lawyers,'' Bonnington said.

Background info:

MEBO timer- evidence stirs up relatives

18/11/99 THE SCOTSMAN - Scotlands leading newspaper The release of information on the internet by a Crown witness, Edwin Bollier, of details from a statement he gave to Dumfries and Galloway police, has already raised concerns among lawyers and victims’ families. Prosecutors, led by the Lord Advocate, intend to argue that the timing devices that detonat-ed the bomb were bought from MEBO, a Swiss arms manufacturer owned by Mr Bollier. Mr Bollier now claims he has doubts about the authenticity of the timer fragments found after the bombing.

Dr Swire called Mr Bollier’s disclosures astonishing and said he had asked that the Lord Advocate take action under the Contempt of Court Act. He added that he was surprised at the flurry of police investigations with the trial due to start in February. "It is hard to see why all these activities have started so near to the start of the actual trial when all these years have gone past when this sort of thing could have been done," said Dr Swire.

Until now it has been a duty of the Crown Office to disclose evidence, but only as much as it decided was relevant to the defence case, leaving the anomaly that the prosecution was second-guessing what the defence would want and need to know. "Article 6 effectively requires a fair trial and a fair trial requires that the material available to the prosecution should be made available to the defence in sufficient time for them to investigate it before the trial starts," said Prof Robert Black. "I have heard that there are matters [in the Lockerbie case] over which the Crown Office is being very sticky indeed."

See what MEBO and E. Bollier published on the net!

read more about the upcoming court hearing on the evidence below....

Lockerbie accused to cite European law

18/11/99 THE HERALD+THE SCOTSMAN - Scotlands leading newspaperDefence lawyers for two Libyans suspected of the Lockerbie bombing are expected to cite the European Convention on Human Rights at the High Court next week in a bid to exploit alleged weaknesses in the prosecution case. It is understood lawyers for the two men - Abdel-Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima - will mount a challenge on Monday over alleged delays by the Crown Office in passing on prosecution evidence which is claimed to be making it difficult to compile a case for the accused.

Last night one of the lawyers at McCourt’s, the firm representing Megrahi, confirmed that the defence intended to cite the European Convention on Human Rights, which has bound the Lord Advocate’s actions since devolution on 20 May. "There is a devolution issue which is being considered on Monday," he said. He refused to discuss the matter of the debate, but it is thought that the defence will cite Article 6 of the convention, enshrining the right to a fair trial, to insist that the defence is given access to all the evidence that the Crown Office intends to use against the suspects. Insiders have suggested that the Crown may be seeking to delay proceedings by not handing over evidence until the last moment, in order to give it time to gather more evidence.

Professor Robert Black, a law lecturer at Edinburgh University, says it would be a major development in Scots law if the European Convention was to provide a legal tool to force the Crown Office to submit evidence to the defence. He said last night: "Under the convention we have a remedy to compel the Crown Office to disclose evidence. But it need only disclose as much evidence as it decides is relevant to the defence case which leaves the anomaly that the prosecution has to second-guess what the defence would want and need to know."

A Crown Office spokesman confirmed there would be a pre-trial hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday. He declined to give further details. Acting for the Crown Office, Dumfries and Galloway police recently travelled to Libya and Sweden, and last month went to Cyprus to look for an alleged associate of the two suspects, prompting doubts over the strength of the Crown’s case. Article 6 has repeatedly been used to chastise the Crown Office in the five months since the Scotland Act obliged the Lord Advocate to comply with the European convention.

Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was one of 270 people who died when PanAm 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, last night expressed concern that any hearing could delay the trial. He stressed that both defence and prosecution should have access to all necessary information. Speaking from Spain, where he is on holiday, Dr Swire said: "As far as I can understand it, there has been a complaint about the way the defence team were receiving information and that the prosecution have not been providing them with all the information they should be allowed to have.

"As I understand it, a great deal of information has to be supplied to the defence by the prosecution as soon as the two accused surrendered themselves for trial in Holland. "I hope there are no grounds to criticise the amount and the quality of information that the prosecution team did supply." "We are keen to see truth and justice. Anything that might delay the trial is of concern to us."

Background info:

Lockerbie trial in four-day week row

The Lockerbie trial could last two years if the court agrees to honour Muslim law and sits for just four days a week. The two defendants, Libyans Abdelbasset Ali Ahmed Al Megrahi and Ali Amin Khalifa Fhima, are Muslims, who traditionally observe Friday as a day of rest, equivalent to the Christian Sunday. Under Scottish Prison Service rules and Crown Office procedures, the religious rights of accused people must be respected.

Dr. Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora on Pan Am 103 in 1988, told the Sunday Herald that if the court decides not to sit on Fridays, he would support the decision. "It is important to give appropriate recognition to religious requirements," he said. "It is probably right and proper the defendants' customs are given due attention." "What we want more than anything is a fair trial," he said. "It would be a good thing to take steps that would keep the support of the Moslem community."

But prominent Glasgow lawyer Peter Watson, who has represented some of the Lockerbie families, told the Sunday Herald that it is unprecedented for the observance of religious holidays to affect the course of a Scottish trial. "I have never heard of such a situation," he said. "Does that mean that Jewish defendants can have a trial stopped? "It is ridiculous. I cannot imagine that this would arise in a Scottish court."

The judges, who have not yet been named, are also believed to support a four-day week. "It would not cause them any problems," said one source. "There have already been informal indications that the judges would not want to sit five days a week." The Lockerbie trial has threatened to put the Scottish judiciary under considerable strain. To take three sitting judges (plus one spare judge in case of illness) out of the system could compromise the smooth running of the domestic courts schedule.

Edinburgh Airport Security lapse 'no surprise', says Jim Swire

16/11/99 BBC NEWS The father of a woman who died in the Lockerbie bombingsays he is not surprised by reports of explosives, guns and knives being missed during security checks at Edinburgh Airport. Jim Swire's daughter Flora was one of 270 people killed following the explosion on board a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. He said: "This is very worrying, although not a great surprise. There are inevitable problems at the airport security gates - it's an imperfect device to prevent terrorism. Prevention must start long before, through intelligence gathering."

Jim Swire himself startled airport securities at Heathrow some years ago by bringing a bomb attrap with him on a trip to the USA. His comments come as concern is expressed about a "serious lapse" in security at the airport when explosives, guns and knives, being carried by plain-clothed inspectors, went undetected. One passed through security with a gun strapped to his back, another was not stopped despite carrying Semtex in his briefcase and a third had a butterfly knife strapped to her leg.

The incidents occurred when five inspectors from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions arrived at the airport to use both domestic and international flights, according to the Daily Record. Only one failed a security check. A spokesman for the DETR confirmed that security checks did take place but he refused to comment on whether explosives, guns and knives were carried through baggage control undetected. A spokesman for British Airport Authority, which owns Edinburgh Airport, refused to comment on the check.

He did say that the authority regularly measures and test performance and that safety and security are given the highest priority at all times. But Jim Swire said security was not good enough. He said: "This shows things are not right at Edinburgh Airport. Those who did the checks should be congratulated on exposing weaknesses."

Background info:

Syracuse Scholars prepare for Remembrance Week

10/11/99 The Daily Orange (US) Nearly 11 years after Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, Syracuse University will host its annual Remembrance Week to celebrate the memory of the 35 SU students who died in the bombing. The week is about taking time out of regular life to thinkabout the big picture, what is going on around the world, said Judy O’Rourke, a coordinator for the event and assistant vice president of undergraduate studies.

SU decided to remember the students on the flight by creating the Remembrance Scholarship, which is given annually to seniors who exhibit distinguished scholarship, citizenship and service to the community, said Mary Jane Nathan, director of special events. The week will convene Sunday at 1:30 p.m. when several of the 35 Remembrance Scholars will take part in their annual community service activity, said Remembrance Scholar Emily Borland, an environmental design-interior major. The group will ask residents neighboring the SU community for non-perishable food items for the Downtown Emergency Assistance Service, which is part of Catholic Charities.

The scholars, in return, will give the donators a blue ribbon to affix to their house or car in memory of the tragedy, she said. One of the reasons the group decided to do this was to show that university students appreciate the surrounding community, Borland said. We want to show that not all students are interested in loud parties and throwing trash around, she said. The students will ask for donations in the neighborhood east of SU from Comstock Avenue and Westcott Street between Clarendon Avenue and Stratford Street, Borland said.

The scholars will continue their food collection effort in the Schine Student Center Atrium, Monday through Wednesday from 11:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. At 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, an art exposition will be hosted in memory of the students killed in the tragedy at the Goldstein Faculty and Student Center, said Amy Sheff, a senior drama major. The event will include a collection of visual arts, drama and poetry.

A highlight of the event will be a reading by two Lockerbie Scholars, Borland said. Fione Sewell and Deborah Allbrooke, both from the Lockerbie area will read a passage relating to the terrorist attack, said Gerri Clark, a Remembrance Scholar and a senior drama major. Lockerbie Scholars are students from the Lockerbie area who are selected annually to spend a year studying at SU. Taking part in the exhibition will be a cross-section of students, faculty and staff,” she said.

On Wednesday at 7p.m., members of the SU community will discuss the history and legal issues of the Flight 103 tragedy in the Killian Room, 500 Hall of Languages, said Jessica Ortiz, a Remembrance Scholar and a management information systems and law and public policy major. Presenting will be Sara Scheidman, a second-year SU law student and Joan Deppa, an associate professor of visual and interactive communications, and principal author of The Media and Disasters: Pan Am 103. This is an opportunity to place the trial in a context, she said.

The week-long event will end on Friday when a memorial service is scheduled to remember the 35 students. At noon, the scholars and members of the community will gather at SU’s Place of Remembrance in front of the Hall of Languages. Each scholar will each lay a rose on the memorial. Immediately following, a campus-wide moment of silence will be observed as Crouse College’s chimes will ring 35 times, once for each student who lost his or her life over Lockerbie. Once the ringing ceases, the scholars will break ground fora garden of Remembrance directly behind the Place of Remembrance, said Remembrance Scholar Danielle Desiato, a senior advertising major. The purpose of the garden is to have something lasting other than the wall, she said.

A committee of Remembrance Scholars, SU landscapers and maintenance employees will convene soon to decide how to lay out the garden, Desiato said. The garden will be planted as early as possible in the spring, she said. At 4:30 p.m. on Friday, a convocation will be held at Hendrick’s Chapel. The event will last nearly an hour and members of the SU community are invited, Nathan said. David Rubin, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, will preside over the ceremony, Nathan said. Rubin could not be reached for comment.

Speaking at the convocation will be Tanya Horacek, a member of the Remembrance Scholar Selection Committee and an assistant professor of nutrition and hospitality management. The speech will be celebrating the current winners and how they represent the 35 students who died, she said." I’m trying to make it a little more upbeat."

Background info:

Libya may sue US over sanctions

CHICAGO, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi plans to sue the United States and Britain if the suspects in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing are acquitted, the Final Call reported Tuesday. In an exclusive interview with the newspaper put out by the Chicago- based Nation of Islam, Gadhafi said if the suspects are acquitted, he will seek reparations for sanctions imposed because of Libya's alleged involvement in the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which left all 259 aboard and 11 people on the ground dead.

``We have paid the price for an issue that we have not committed,'' Gadhafi said in the Nov. 16 edition of the newspaper. He said his country had lost as much as $30 billion in the seven years the sanctions have been in effect. He also said the sanctions had caused the deaths of thousands. Gadhafi said not Third World country, including his own, is capable of carrying out the ``carefully planned and very well done'' bombing.

Background info:

National Press Club to host Pan Am 103-meeting

NPC to Host Briefing on Legal Implications of Pan Am Bombing
WHAT: National Press Club "Afternoon Newsmaker"
WHO: Team from Lockerbie (Scotland) Trial Briefing Unit
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m.
WHERE: National Press Club First Amendment Lounge Washington, D.C.
DETAILS: The Lockerbie team, of the University of Glasgow Law School, will discuss the legal implications of the indictment of two Libyans accused in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Lockerbie investigation focuses back on Lebanese terrorist

04/11/99 THE SCOTSMAN - Scotlands leading newspaper - and other media A lebanese terrorist eliminated from inquiries of the Lockerbie bombing is believed to be the man reinvestigated by detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police in a secret investigation in Cyprus. The CID officers have been in Cyprus for five days looking for a link between the man - described by Cypriot police as a "Libyan businessman" - and the two suspects being held in the Netherlands.

Sources have told THE SCOTSMAN that the businessman is Mohammed Abu Talb, a convicted Lebanese terrorist. The Scottish detectives have obtained a court order to examine a bank account that the businessman held with a bank on the island, and are trying to get records of his telephone calls. Galafkos Xenos, a Cyprus police spokesman, declined to identify the man, but said he was "currently in prison in Scandinavia following his conviction on a terrorist bombing charge". Abu Talb is serving a life-sentence in prison in Sweden for blowing up the North-West Airlines office in Copenhagen in the 1980ies. "All I can say is that he used various names while he was in Cyprus", said mr. Xenos.

The trip by the two detectives to Cyprus follows a secret trip to Sweden by Scottish police and a Crown Office representative last month, THE SCOTSMAN can reveal. A police source in Sweden has said that the Scottish detective was present at two private court hearings. Local reporters were told simply that the hearings related to a non-Swedish national being held in a Swedish jail, and that the Scottish investigators were making inquiries into a murder in Scotland. Sources now believe that the non-Swedish national was Abu Talb, and the murder was the Lockerbie bombing. The Crown Office denied yesterday that there was any xxxx? to add Abu Talb's name to the Lockerbie indictment as a co-conspirator in the bombing.

A spokesman said: "Abu Talb's name could not be added to the indictment. By law, the indictment has been served and the two named people on it are the only people who can stand trial in February; we can't add to it. As to whether Abu Talb will witness, we cannot comment on evidental matters, and we have nothing further we can actually say on that." The flurry of police activity which apparently surrounds Abu Talb does however suggest that new and active lines of xxx? are still being followed up in the Lockerbie case. (.....)

It is understood that Abu Talb's photo may have been identified by a Maltese storekeeper who sold items of clothes which were packed in the suitcase containing the Lockerbie bomb. There is no known political or professional connection to Abu Talb who is Lebanese and Al-Megrahi and Fhima, who are Libyan. The two detectives asked that their visit to Cyprus should remain a secret, Mr. Xenos said. But their presence was revealed by a newspaper by a detailed front-page report in the Greek Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros.

The paper said that the investigation was concentrating on activities on the island of two other Libyans "who may be possible collaborators" of the two Lockerbie bombing suspects and on whether they had anything to do with the absent businessman. Professor Robert Black, a law lecturer at Edinburgh University and an expert on the Lockerbie investigation, said: "It is very interesting that the new lines of investigation still seem to be pursued at this stage."

THE CYPRUS MAIL says Cyprus police have already secured a court injunction lifting secrecy laws on a bank account the Libyan businessman had at a branch of a foreign bank in Nicosia. The man is no longer on the island and authorities could not immediately say what sort of business he was involved in. "All I can say is that he used various names while he was in Cyprus," a security source stated. Police were also hoping to get records of telephone calls the Libyan made when he visited Cyprus "years ago", the source said. The Cyprus Mail learnt yesterday that the businessman used to own an offshore company in Cyprus in 1992.

Background info:

Official Pan Am 103 - indictment now served

29/10/99 The indictment has now been served upon the two Libyan's accused of the bombing of the airliner. The charges remain whooly similar to those in the petition but instances of the narrative have changed. Scotlands High Court of Justiciary ordered that the indictment be served by 30th October. The Scottish Crown Office said that it will call 1,058 witnesses, and has listed 1,489 numbered documents and 550 articles of evidence. Go to Glasgow University's Lockerbie-website to read the indictment and the petition.
The full indictment including victims' 270 names and their 1988-addresses is here.

Background info:

US Congress Committee keeps pressing Albright for Lockerbie letter

Oct 27 - Last month three U.S. senators had sought assurances from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that no promises had been made to shield Libyan leaders from complicity during the Lockerbie bombing trial, according to their letter released on September 15. Their request was backed up by a letter from the US Congress Committee on International Relations in a letter dated October 5th, demanding the handover of the alleged Annan-Libya letter and any other material or information about the role of the US Dept. of State in the upcoming trial.

Mrs. Albrights office showed no reaction to these two letters. Yesterday the US Congress Committee on International Relations sent a new, stronger letter to US State Secretary Madeleine Albright this time demanding "a prompt reply and the delivery of the requested material".

Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, New Jersey, whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora was one of 35 Syracuse University students who perished in the crash, said earlier this month that U.S. officials had told the families that the letter did not exist or they did not have a copy of it. ``That is ludicrous. The congressional oversight office should be able to see any letter the U.S. has signed on to,'' she said. None of the exchanges between Annan and the Libyan government concerning details of the hand over have been released by the United Nations.

Background info:

New doubts on evidence in Lockerbie bombing case

25/10/99 The Scotsman - Scotlands Leading NewspaperTHE case against two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing is under threat after a second serious setback was revealed yesterday. A key witness from Malta is believed to have failed to identify the suspects at the base where they are being held in Holland awaiting trial. Now an exhibit vital to the prosecution case - a fragment of a bomb timer reportedly found by the FBI - has been discounted by another witness.

Legal experts believe the latest setback has left the already weakened prosecution case in tatters because the court needs the "indubitable link" between the circuit, the explosive device and the two Libyan suspects. Yesterday, a senior source close to the investigation, said: "What you've got is one hell of a mess. I think the Crown Office has had the wool pulled over its eyes by the FBI on this."

A Crown witness, Edwin Bollier, is said to have "dismissed" the FBI evidence after finally gaining permission to examine the circuit board last month. The Swiss businessman's company, Meister et Bollier (MEBO), sold MST-13 timing devices to Libya, one of which was allegedly used in the Pan Am 103 bombing in December 1988 which killed 259 passengers and 11 residents in Lockerbie. After microscope examinations of the fragment - and the official forensic photographs - Mr Bollier insisted that the circuit board evidence had never been "connected electrically". He is understood to be adamant that the fragment was not from a timer supplied to Libya and can no longer be connected to the Pan Am bombing.

The source said: "Mr Bollier visited last month and he personally got to see, for the first time, the fragment from the circuit board. After careful examination he found these had not even been connected electrically. So, how can it be used as evidence?" A key part of the Lockerbie investigation has centred on the fragment of circuit board which is alleged to have been found wrapped inside a child'sT-shirt. This T-shirt was traced to a shop called Mary's House in Valetta, Malta. But the shop owner apparently failed to pick out the two Libyans as having bought the T-shirt in his shop when they were put on identification parades.

The source added: "This is another crucial part of the case against the two suspects … It's so embarrassing. This could all collapse." The alleged Libyan link stems from the fact that MST-13 military timing devices manufactured by Meister et Bollier were sold to Libya in 1985. The company also sold the same timer-devices to other countries at that time, including East Germany and the United States. In addition, Mr Bollier told Swiss police that some of the pre-manufactured time circuit boards were missing after break-ins between 1985 and 1987.

The disputed fragment of circuit board was reportedly found in Kielder Forest - about 100 miles from Lockerbie - by a man walking his dog two years after the disaster. Tom Thurman, principal FBI examiner of evidence, announced the discovery of the fragment on 15 June, 1990, declaring that it had been sold exclusively to Libya.

Mr Bollier was accompanied by a personal adviser, Anthony Meli, during a visit to police headquarters in Dumfries to examine the fragment. Mr Meli said yesterday: "The actual viewing of the fragment and the many photographs did prove that this forensic piece of evidence was actually not from any timers sold to Libya. "You can now judge for yourself if such facts will be able to put the entire Lockerbie trial in doubt." (end of article)

What did Ed Bollier actually tell the Scottish police ? Read and view the official witness statements from the Lockerbie police below!

Documents:
All documents are scanned from photocopies and available in jpg-format only as for now. Working on a text based edition for better reading - stay tuned.

• MST-13 Mebo Timer Analysis Report
  Official document from Mebo regarding the Swiss timer reference to Lockerbie/Libya (updated 19/8/99)
• Letter from Scottish Crown office summons Edwin Bollier to Scotland (8/9/99)
• Ed Bolliers witness statement from Dumfries Galloway Police (16/9/99) page 1
  page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5
• Ed Bolliers 2nd witness statement from Dumfries Galloway Police (17/9/99) page 1
  page 2 page 3

Background info:All about Mebo Ag and their connection to the Lockerbie incident
and more.... All about the evidence in the upcoming Lockerbie trial

Police Trip To Libya 'is Waste Of Time'

20/10/99 The Daily Record (Scotland)SCOTS police are "wasting their time" in Libya investigating the Lockerbie bombing, experts said last night. Detectives have arrived in the capital Tripoli to sift through government files about the tragedy. But insiders claim if any papers were ever held in Tripoli, they will have been destroyed by now. Law chiefs first asked to see Libyan files shortly after the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988, which killed 270 people. Granting access now is seen as part of Libyan attempts to get UN trade sanctions scrapped.

Professor Robert Black of Edinburgh University, said: "The UN resolution which set up the trial imposed certain conditions that Libya co-operate with the case. "If Libya were to refuse access now it would look bad - as it would if police were not seen to be going there." The police team in Tripoli is headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Tom McCulloch, 46.