Berlin Press Conference 28 March 2018
A meeting was held in the legal chambers of the solicitors Serdar Kaya to announce that their client, Erica Duggan has challenged the decision made this month by the Wiesbaden Prosecutors to close the investigations into the death of her son Jeremiah Duggan, on the 27thMarch 2003.
Serdar Kaya opened the meeting by explaining how after years of legal attempts to open the case, the Higher Court in Frankfurt (OLG) gave in 2012 their verdict making investigations a mandatory obligation. Key ideas stated in the OLG verdict were:
- The notion that Jeremiah ran from the flat in Wiesbaden to the place where his body was found was impossible. This brought into question the account given to the police and raised suspicions about whether false testimony had been given by a French student who it was known was with Jeremiah on the night of the 26th We will name him suspect 2.
- Information was given by a mother of a LaRouche member on repeated occasions that her son ( suspect 1) had confessed to her the following: ‘Jeremiah was a spy and came to harm the LaRouche campaign and therefore he deserved to die. Also he said that they had attacked Jeremiah and torn off his coat and pursued him. Two witnesses made legal statements about what they had heard from the mother. One of the witnesses was a state official Ursula Caberta, and according to her testimony the mother was most distressed, spoke on many occasions about her concern for what her son had done and was about to go to the police to make a statement but was then stopped by her family who said she would endanger herself and the family. Later the mother of this young man retracted all she had confessed but the OLG still gave importance to the original information as it seemed unlikely that all this would be made up.
Serdar Kaya spoke about how the verdict of the OLG ( the Higher Frankfurt Court) had stated that the original decision of the Wiesbaden authorities to close the case on the grounds that it was suicide was incorrect. The OLG verdict stated that by not investigating possible lines of enquiry were blocked. The key notion of the verdict was to investigate how the possibility of collective harming by a political cult could be a motivational force and should be part of a full investigation.
For five years the legal team working for Erica Duggan had tried both in the giving of witness statements, expert reports and background information to be of help to the Prosecutor in pursuing what should be a far reaching investigation. However at every turn this was blocked by the authorities. This is proved by the way they refused to interview Erica Duggan or Maya, Jeremiah’s girlfriend who were the last persons known to speak to Jeremiah shortly before his death. The interviews that the authorities have carried out merely tabulate answers with no follow up enquiries, exploring of leads or any kind of evaluations of what was presented. It’s all about justifying their assumption in the beginning that this is suicide and so we don’t have to investigate.
It has taken six years for the Wiesbaden Prosecution office to carry out enquiries, inadequate and flawed as they are. What have they done in all this time? They have continued along the same lines as they did in the hours of Jeremiah’s death - by working on an assumption that Jeremiah was hit and run over by two cars and because they are told by the drivers no third party was involved there is no suspect guilty of any crime. They used this argument to justify their failure to investigate possible crimes.
The Wiesbaden authorities have on numerous occasions stated that there were eye witnesses to the crash. This is false.The drivers are not neutral witnesses. Also when they interviewed one driver he came in and gave a statement and then did not sign his testimony. The other driver refused to come in to answer questions but gave her testimony to her lawyer. The key question was never asked about whether she ran over the body. If she had admitted to this fact then how do you explain the photograph of Jeremiah’s body that show no signs of tyre marks or traces?
The authorities have drawn their conclusions based on Inspector Schaecher’s interview with drivers allegedly seeing Jeremiah prior to the crash.
The first incident was discredited by the OLG verdict as the drivers both stated Jeremiah was wearing a long black coat. Erica has produced information that Also the notion that a car can hit someone at high speed and then the person gets up and runs off is impossible.
Erica Duggan spoke more fully on the following:
- It is stated that investigation were conducted into the cause of death on 27 March 2003 and stopped on the 3 June, on the basis of investigations carried out by the police including a reconstruction report. INCORRECT: There were no investigations as the death was declared suicide, no witness statements, no medical examination of body to confirm injuries, no post mortem, no examination of cars, no enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the death, no tracing of last phone call and a general refusal to take note of important testimonies. Also destruction of the clothes and potential crime scene.
- It is stated that Ursula Caberta, a State official contacted the mother of the bodyguard ( Suspect A). INCORRECT: The first move came from the mother who on frequent occasions phoned Frau Caberta to tell her about her suspicions. The fact that later she retracted was noted by the OLG and taken into account. No effort was made by the Wiesbaden authorities to follow up the information from the Caberta or even to pursue suspicions surrounding the suspect A. Further questions or enquiries are totally lacking.
- The OLG stated: “ The authorities must take all appropriate measure possible to secure evidence regarding the incident, for example interviewing witnesses and commissioning experts. This includes the requirements of expeditiousness and appropriate acceleration. ( ECHR, 20 December, Makaratzis vs. Greece, NJW 2005, 34005, 3409, No 74) From the document it can be shown that vital witnesses have never been interviewed ( Erica, Maya, Security Staff of the LaRouche network, the leader Helga Zepp LaRouche) and even when interviews were carried out the contradictions shown are not pursued e.g. All witnesses consistently give the wrong dates for when Jeremiah is supposed to stay in the flat. This shows that they suspect he was somewhere else and do not wish to perjure themselves. Also the fact that the drivers of cars prior to the death all talk about a dark long coat –
- The case was not done promptly. The Prosecutor went back to the same Police Inspector who destroyed evidence and misled the British Foreign Office and others.
- The OlG drew attention to the need to investigate the case of collective harming. Despite all the evidence to do with the cult, the Prosecutors continue to operate from a mind-set that this was suicide and accept that as acceptable in terms of the law. This means that all they are doing is to go through the motions of an interview and fail to seek out possible crimes. They dismiss interviewing the Security staff or the leaders or possible key persons in the organization because they refuse to look into the crimes of corporate responsibility for collective harming. Leads have never been followed and even when important information regarding the paranoia of the leader Helga Zepp LaRouche who it is alleged by witnesses to suffer from paranoia and delusions that she is in constant danger of being assassinated, they ignore it. The enemy according to the Larouche documentation comes from those have been brainwashed by the Tavistock clinic in London to kill political leaders. Jeremiah represented all that the political cult hold as the enemy according to their literature; namely The British, the jews and those brainwashed by the Tavistock. None of these dangerous theories that could have turned Jeremiah into a scape-goat for their hate mongering was addressed in the police enquiries.
- They fail to investigate the crash – to interview the reconstruction expert who stated the cars were moved or interrogate Inspector Schaecher for why the cars were not examined . They dismiss out of hand the expert reports submitted from our experts that question how a body can be run over and not show traces.
Written by Erica Duggan.