Edwin Bollier
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Edwin Bollier and his partner, Erwin Meister, founded the Meister/Bollier (Mebo) electronics firm in Zürich, Switzerland. Mebo made a range of electronic products – inter alia – sophisticated timing devices and briefcases equipped to radio-detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Earlier, in the 1970s, the partners Meister and Bollier had established the pirate radio station Radio Nordsee International aboard the MV Mebo II. They had tried, but failed, to buy the old Wonderful Radio London ship MV Galaxy.
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[edit] Radio Nordsee International (RNI)
The psychedelically-painted Mebo II was equipped with a mediumwave transmitter that was officially rated at 105 kilowatts (more than twice the power that had been used by Radio London and Radio Caroline South), though in practice it was operated at 90 kW or less. The ship also had shortwave and FM transmitters.Edwin Bollier announces that RNI has achieved a broadcast output of 90,000 Watts
The station initially broadcast from off the East coast of England, but the British Government soon began jamming the station's mediumwave signal. A commonly-cited reason for this was that RNI's DJs attempted to influence the outcome of the general election by encouraging listeners to vote Conservative. In fact, the political messages were intended as a response to the jamming, on the grounds that if the Conservatives won the 1970 election they might stop it. In the event the Conservatives did win, but the jamming nonetheless continued.
Paul Harris's book Broadcasting from the High Seas (Edinburgh, Paul Harris Publishing, 1976, ISBN 0904505073) suggests that the Government may have suspected that RNI's shortwave equipment was being used to send coded messages to unfriendly countries.
Eventually the Mebo II sailed to a position off the Netherlands and the jamming stopped. Despite some trials and tribulations caused by its rivalry with Radio Veronica RNI stayed on the air until the Dutch anti-piracy law was passed in September 1974.
In 1976, after a full refit, the Mebo II sailed to Libya where for some time it was used to relay Libyan radio programming, before allegedly being blown up for military target practice.
[edit] MST-13
Mebo's MST-13 timing device was proven at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial to have been the trigger for the IED that brought the aircraft down over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21, 1988.
[edit] Bollier says no
In the early stages of the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Scottish police showed Bollier a photograph of a brown 8-ply timer fragment, from a prototype timer that was never supplied to Libya. At the 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.
[edit] Co-conspirator
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, Allan 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."
As a discouragement to the prosecution, Bollier had 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, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Gerrit Pretorius, private secretary to South Africa's former foreign minister Pik Botha.
[edit] External links
- Bollier 'was Lockerbie suspect'
- Criminal activities in the Lockerbie affair
- Bollier's testimony in week 8 of the trial
- Radio Northsea International
- Radio Nord See
- RNI pictures
- Lockerbie
