Edwin Bollier

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Edwin Bollier and his partner, Erwin Meister, founded Mebo Telecommunications AG in Zürich, Switzerland in 1969.

In the 1970s, the partners Meister and Bollier had established the pirate radio station Radio North Sea International (RNI) aboard the radio ship Mebo II, anchored first off the Dutch coast, then in the North Sea off the English seaside resort of Clacton. After transmissions ceased in 1974, Mebo II sailed to Tripoli, Libya where it was initially used by the Libyan government in 1977 as a radio station, and later used for military target practice in the Gulf of Sidra.[1].

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[edit] MST-13

Mebo's MST-13 timing device was shown at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in 2000 to have been the trigger for the IED that brought the aircraft down over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21, 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 ssaid 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]

[edit] Co-conspirator

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]


[edit] "$4 million offer" to Bollier

In October 2007, Bollier told Dr Köchler that he was offered $4 million – plus a new identity in the United States – if he would agree to testify 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]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Target practice in the Mediterranean
  2. ^ Meister and Bollier testify at the Lockerbie trial
  3. ^ How MI6 was told of Stasi spy who supplied the timer
  4. ^ Meister & Bollier and the Lockerbie crash
  5. ^ Shadow Over Lockerbie
  6. ^ Bollier 'was Lockerbie suspect'
  7. ^ Calling high-ranking/controversial witnesses
  8. ^ Lockerbie trial: an intelligence operation?

[edit] External links