Wednesday 19 November 2014

The MEBO and Bollier saga continues

[A number of Swiss news websites are running a report about the refusal of a special federal prosecutor to pursue the complaint made by Edwin Bollier and MEBO against a former Swiss federal police officer. A translation of the report on the Blick website (by me, with help from Google Translate) reads as follows:]

The special Federal Prosecutor, Felix Bänziger, has declined to open a criminal investigation against a former federal police officer in connection with the Lockerbie bombing. The complaint had been filed by the Zurich businessman Edwin Bollier.

The timer for the bomb allegedly came from Bollier’s company. According to Bollier’s statement, an employee of his company, Mebo AG, illegally handed over a prototype of the relevant timer to an official of the federal police six months after the attack.

This prototype was then used to construct a "fabricated" production which was used in the Lockerbie trial process against Libya. A Scottish court convicted a Libyan intelligence officer in 2001 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. 270 people were killed in the attack in 1988.

In 2011 Bollier lodged a complaint against the former federal police officer. In March this year the Department of Justice (FOJ) issued an authorization to prosecute the officer who now works for the Federal Intelligence Service. Special prosecutor Felix Bänziger was commissioned to pursue the complaint.

Bänziger has now come to the conclusion that the alleged offences were already time-barred before receipt of Bollier’s complaint in 2011, the federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday.

"At the very latest, all the alleged facts could have been known during the trial before the Scottish High Court in 2000," it said in the release. All possible actions were therefore time-barred in 2010. Up to the year 2002 there was a limitation period of ten years for the prosecution of crimes.

Under the current law the prosecution of crimes is barred only after 15 years. However, the 10 year limitation period was the governing law at the time of the act, the federal prosecutor’s office notes. Bänziger’s decision not to pursue the complaint is not yet final. Edwin Bollier is still on the way to the Federal Criminal Court. [RB: And from there, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Bollier has indicated.]

In May this year, the Federal Civil Court rejected a government liability claim made by Bollier. The claim in which Bollier sought from the state six million dollars plus interest, was held to have been made too late.

According to Bollier, because of the media reports on the alleged involvement of his company in the Lockerbie attack, he lost major clients and was driven to the brink of ruin.

3 comments:

  1. Living with the "Lockerbie Affair", 2014 > only in German language:

    Die Konsequenzen für Edwin Bollier & Mebo AG…

    Die Schweizer Behörden haben offensichtlich nicht den Mut die vielen offenen  Fragen im Zusammenhang mit dem 
    Fall Lockerbie zu klären und 
    berufen sich  juristisch auf Verjährung und Verwirkung. Es darf nicht sein und ist unverständlich,  dass die llegale in Besitznahme der Timer
    Platine vom 22.Juni 1990 durch 
    einen Bundesbeamten und ein 
    möglicher kausaler Zusammenhang 
    mit dem "Lockerbie Fall" nicht 
    untersucht wird.

    Mit diesem Entscheid werden 
    indirekt auch nachweislich 
    falschen Zeugenaussagen  des Bundespolizisten beim Gericht in Zeist im Raum stehen gelassen…

    Nur eine Strafuntersuchung hätte 
    gezeigt, ob, wann und an wen diese Timer-Platine  weitergegeben wurde. Zum Zeitpunkt der widerrechtlichen Mitnahme am
    22.Juni 1989 bestand bekanntlich 
    noch keine internationale 
    Rechtshilfe (Schweiz / Scotland) ! Diese trat erst am  30.Oktober 1990 in Kraft. 

    Eine weitere Verschleppung durch die Abweisung einer Strafuntersuchung - wegen Verjährung - gegen einen Beamten des schweizerischen Nachrichtendienstes (NDB) war von Edwin & MEBO AG vorauszusehen.

    Bevor wir mit der zweiten "Lockerbie Affäre" den Europäischen Gerichtshof anrufen können, müssen wir leider ebenfalls zuerst die nationalen Gerichte, bis zum Bundesgericht anrufen.

    Es war für uns klar, dass die potenzielle Straftat eines Bundesbeamten verjährt war. Da aber die verjährte Straftat (Staatshaftung) in der offensichtlichen Verbindung mit dem "Lockerbie Fall" steht (270 Tote) - und die Strafuntersuchung in Scotland offen bleibt, muss die verjährte Straftat - und das gegenseitige Rechtshilfeabkommen Schweiz / Scotland - in die weiteren Untersuchungen mit-einbezogen werden.
    Auch diese fragwürdige Sistierung wird zur richterlichen Beurteilung, von MEBO AG, an den Europäischen Gerichtshof weitergezogen.

    Edwin Bollier & MEBO Ltd, Switzerland, Webpage: www.lockerbie.ch

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  2. correction: The MST 13 circuit board was taken on June 22, 1989 in illegal Possession.
    Edwin Bollier, MEBO ltd

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  3. If you hadn’t lied to start with, Blaming Libya in the hope of reward money this tragedy for Megrahi & Libya might never have happened. Blame yourself

    ReplyDelete