Edwin Bollier and his partner, Erwin Meister, founded Mebo Telecommunications AG in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland in 1969. Edwin Bollier

The firm has traded in various electronic and telecommunication equipment and acted as consultants in the construction of radio stations.

Radio Nordsee International

In 1969–70, the partners Meister and Bollier established a commercial

offshore radio Offshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicensed but transmissions are legal in international waters. This is in contrast to unlicensed broadcasting on land or within a nat ...

station, Radio Nordsee International (RNI), in

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

aboard the radio ship '' Mebo II'', anchored off

Scheveningen Scheveningen () is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict () of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is popular ...

,The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Transmissions to Northwest Europe began in January 1970. By 1971, the station had established a large listenership, especially in the Netherlands, its programs broadcast simultaneously on

mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Duri ...

(105 kW),

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

(2 X 10 kW), and FM (1 kW). After transmissions ceased in 1974, and a lengthy legal battle with the Dutch government over its impounding of the vessel, in 1977 the ''Mebo II'' sailed for

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli, historically known as Tripoli-of-the-West, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.317 million people in 2021. It is located in the northwest of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point ...

, 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 The Gulf of Sidra (), also known as the Gulf of Sirte (), is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or the city of Sirte. It was also historically known as the Great Sirte or G ...

. The deal marked the beginning of a long business relationship with Libya.

Pan Am Flight 103 bombing

MST-13

Mebo's MST-13 timing device was claimed at the

Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, more than 11 years after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under ...

in 2000 to have triggered the

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

that brought the aircraft down over

Lockerbie Lockerbie (, ) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, located in south-western Scotland. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town had an estimated population of in . The town came to international attention in December 1988 when ...

in Scotland on 21 December 1988. 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 Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. While giving evidence at the

Lockerbie trial The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, more than 11 years after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under S ...

at the Scottish Court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands on 19 June 2000, Bollier was asked to identify a green 9-ply timer fragment (PT/35(b)) which the prosecution argued was 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.

Possibility of co-conspirator charge

Bollier had rented office space to the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103. During Bollier's testimony, it was revealed that the prosecution had been considering charging him with the same

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

to murder charge as the two Libyans, Megrahi and Fhimah, faced. When the defense 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 The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

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 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 President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Gerrit Pretorius, private secretary to South Africa's former foreign minister

Pik Botha Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, (27 April 1932 – 12 October 2018) was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era, the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a lib ...

"$4 million offer" to Bollier

In October 2007 Bollier told UN-observer Dr Hans Köchler that he had been offered, but not accepted, a payment of $4 million, together with a new identity, if he agreed to confirm that the fragment of a timer 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 had reported the incident, after returning from the US, to the Swiss Federal Police. In a subsequent BBC documentary aired in 2008 Bollier claimed that he had been offered $200 million by the Gaddafi government if he could "... get Al Megrahi out of prison".

References

External links

*
Bollier's testimony in week 8 of the trialBollier's Lockerbie website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollier, Edwin 20th-century Swiss people 1938 births Pan Am Flight 103 Living people Offshore radio broadcasters