Swiss Engineer Says He Lied About Lockerbie Evidence

Hundreds of lives exploded in grief and horror in 1998 when a Libyan bomb destroyed a passenger flight from London to New York. The actual death toll was 270, including deaths in the Scottish village of Lockerbie from falling debris.

Now, a ghostly hadow emerges: a Swiss engineer claims he lied during the trial of a Libyan,Abdulbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the bombing. However, there's a cloud of suspicion over that sudden statement to police: engineer Ulrich Lumpert worked for Mebo, the company that made the timing switch used in the bomb.

Mebo, headed by Edwin Bollier, went into bankruptcy as customers withdrew after Bollier admitted selling bomb timers to Muammar Gadaffi's Libyan forces. Trading with Libya in effect cost Bollier his company.

Bollier has contined to fight to clear his company of any taint of involvement with the Lockerbie bombing. al-Megrahi was imprisoned for life, but is appealing. In a parallel battle, Bollier still wants to deny that his company's timer was used for the bomb, despite his testimony during the trial in which he identified the remnants of the timer.

I find it very curious that Bollier's engineer now claims he lied during the investigation and trial. And especially curious given that Bollier was immediately ready with a lot to say about his company's innocence.

What he's skipping over--he earlier admitted that he sold military supplies to Libya. His choice of markets led to economic repercussions that downed his company. Does he think that renewed controversy over the timers will change the reaction?

The debris from Lockerbie continues to fall.

The key piece of material evidence used by prosecutors to implicate Libya in the Lockerbie bombing has emerged as a probable fake.

Nearly two decades after Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Scotland on 21 December, 1988, allegations of international political intrigue and shoddy investigative work are being levelled at the British government, the FBI and the Scottish police as one of the crucial witnesses, Swiss engineer Ulrich Lumpert, has apparently confessed that he lied about the origins of a crucial 'timer' - evidence that helped tie the man convicted of the bombing to the crime.

Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

NowPublic

Tags: Bomb | bombing | Evidence | Libya | LOCKERBIE | Lockerbie bombing | Scotland | TAMPERED | timer