- Edwin Bollier
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Edwin Bollier and his partner, Erwin Meister, founded Mebo Telecommunications AG in Zürich, Switzerland in 1969.
Contents
Radio Nordsee International
In 1970, the partners Meister and Bollier had established the international waters radio station Radio Nordsee International (RNI) aboard the radio ship Mebo II, anchored first off Scheveningen, Netherlands, then in the North Sea off the English coast at Clacton, then back to off Scheveningen. By 1971, the station was highly popular, especially in the Netherlands, but also Western Europe, its programs beamed by powerful medium and dual shortwave transmitters. After transmissions ceased in 1974, and a lengthy legal battle with the Dutch government over its impoundment of the vessel, in 1977 the Mebo II sailed for Tripoli, Libya, where it was initially leased to the Libyan government for use as a radio station; then later sunk during military target practice in the Gulf of Sidra.[1] The deal marked the beginning of a long business relationship with Libya.
Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trialMST-13
Mebo's MST-13 timing device was claimed at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in 2000 to have been the trigger for the bomb that brought the aircraft down over Lockerbie in Scotland on 21 December 1988.[2][3]
In the early stages of the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Scottish police showed Bollier a photograph of what he said was a brown 8-ply timer fragment, from a prototype timer that was never supplied to Libya. At the Lockerbie trial, Bollier was asked to identify a green 9-ply timer fragment from an MST-13 timer, 20 of which had been delivered to Libya. He wanted to dispute the evidence but trial Judge, Lord Sutherland, did not permit him to do so.[4]
Possibility of co-conspirator charge
Bollier had rented office space to the Libyan who was convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103.[5]
During Bollier's testimony, it was revealed that the prosecution had been considering charging him with the same conspiracy to murder charge as the two Libyans, Megrahi and Fhimah, faced. When the defence protested that they had not been given notice of that position, prosecuting counsel, Alan Turnbull QC, told the court:
- "If we were going to libel him we would have done so, these issues have been considered. The decision not to include him as a co-conspirator is not a recognition that he has nothing to do with the matter. The extent of his involvement is yet to be developed in evidence. It may be he has involvement in what occurred, but unless the Crown is able to adduce evidence that places him in the conspiracy, it is not appropriate to libel him as a co-conspirator."[6]
As a discouragement to the prosecution, Bollier is alleged to have let it be known before the start of the trial that if he were to be charged for the PA 103 bombing he would call some high-ranking and controversial witnesses to appear, for example: former United States President George H. W. Bush, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Gerrit Pretorius, private secretary to South Africa's former foreign minister Pik Botha.[7]
"$4 million offer" to Bollier
In October 2007, Bollier told UN-observer Dr Hans Köchler that he was offered $4 million – plus a new identity in the United States – if he would agree to "write in a police statement" that the timer fragment allegedly found at the Pan Am Flight 103 crash site was actually part of a Mebo MST-13 timer that his firm had supplied to Libya. He apparently turned down the offer.[8][9]
In a BBC documentary screened on 31 August 2008[10] Bollier claimed that he had been offered $200 million by the Gaddafi government if he could "... get Al Megrahi out of prison". Bollier stated that he was hoping that the Gaddafi government might still pay him this.
References
- ^ Dr. Martin van der Ven. "Target practice in the Mediterranean". Offshore-radio.de. http://www.offshore-radio.de/fleet/mebo2.htm. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Meister and Bollier testify at the Lockerbie trial". Archived from the original on 5 November 2002. http://web.archive.org/web/20021105041308/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/week8.html. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "How MI6 was told of Stasi spy who supplied the timer". Icce.rug.nl. http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME03/Herald020101.shtml. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Meister & Bollier and the Lockerbie crash". Mebocom-defilee.ch. http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch/ceocities/mebo.htm. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Shadow Over Lockerbie". Americanradioworks.publicradio.org. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/lockerbie/story/printable_story.html. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Bollier 'was Lockerbie suspect'". BBC News. 21 June 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/800094.stm. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ Lockerbie +Pan +Am +103. "Calling high-ranking/controversial witnesses". Mebocom-defilee.ch. http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch/ceocities/ebolist99.htm. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ "Lockerbie trial: an intelligence operation?". I-p-o.org. 5 October 2007. http://i-p-o.org/IPO-nr-Lockerbie-5Oct07.htm. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission
- ^ "Gaddafi's son attacks "greedy" Lockerbie relatives in BBC Two documentary". Bbc.co.uk. 29 August 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/08_august/29/lockerbie.shtml. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
External links
Categories:- 20th-century Swiss people
- 1938 births
- Pan Am Flight 103
- Living people
- Offshore radio broadcasters
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