Lockerbie Bombing Case Faces U-Turn after Perjury Confession

World | August 20, 2007, Monday // 00:00

The Lockerbie bombing case, which has often been linked to the trial of the six Bulgarian medics in Libya, is about to make a historic U-turn after a key witness confessed to perjury, Darik radio reported.

Ulrich Lumpert, a Swiss electronic engineer and former employee at the Zurich-based MEBO Ltd Telecommunication, has admitted that he stole from the company a hand manufactured MST-13 Timer PC-Board that was later used as evidence against the defendant, Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.

The confession was made in a letter sent to dozens of organizations and individuals, including Darik radio journalist Svetoslav Ivanov.

The hand-over happened on June 22, 1989.

Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people. He is serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison but in June won the right to launch an appeal.

Lumpert, who was summoned to testify as witness No.550, says he did not know , that the MST-13 Timer PC-Board was used for a specific purpose in connection with the attack on PanAm 103.

"I have been living in an indescribable condition of depression of and fear since my second examination by the police in 1991," Lumpert says in the letter.

He claims he was shocked when he was shown the photograph with the apparent MST-13 Timer fragment by the "BUPO", FBI and the Scottish Police, for the first time in mid January 1991.

"They confronted me with the fact that this MST-13 Timer fragment was found in Lockebie and was part of the ignition device of the suitcase with explosives, which caused the Boeing 747 PanAm Flight 103 to crash," Lumpert recalls.

"When I realized that the MST-13 PC-board, after it was handed over by me without permission was misused for deliberate politically criminal "action", it was clear to me that I was stuck "in the middle of it" and decided to keep quiet, for it could have been extremely dangerous for me as an unintentional "bearer of secrets".

"I am sorry for the consequences of my silence at that time for the innocent Libyan Mr. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, sentenced to life imprisonment, and for the country of Libya," says Lumpert's letter, which has been officially certified in Switzerland.

It concludes with a call for putting an end to the accusation that Libya is responsible for the Lockerbie Tragedy by "manufacturing" MST-13 Timer-Link with criminal intent.

At the beginning of August the son of Libyan leader Seif al-Islam told French newspaper Le Monde there was a link between the case of the jailed agent, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, and Libya's freeing last month of six foreign medics convicted of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV. Al-Islam said Libya will soon have an extradition agreement with Britain and stressed he was confident of his early return.

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