Bombing affair
The bombing affair ( Luxembourgish : Bommeleeër Affär ) refers to a series of bomb attacks committed by several perpetrators on infrastructure facilities and public buildings in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg between May 1984 and April 1986. Since both the perpetrators and the motives for the acts have been in the dark for decades, developed Conspiracy theories .
Summary of events
In 1984 and 1985 the perpetrators stole detonators and explosives from Luxembourg quarries several times. They were used to blow up electricity pylons of the energy supply company Cegedel . The Cegedel then received several extortion letters. The company called on the police and initially decided not to pay. But when the Cegedel wanted to give in to the demands, the perpetrators canceled the money transfer and explained that they knew about the police involved and mocked them at the same time. As a result, electricity pylons continued to be the target of attacks, but now also the Gendarmerie Headquarters and the Palace of Justice. A small explosive charge that the perpetrators threw out of the window of a moving car during the council meeting of the European heads of state and government on the Kirchberg plateau caused a particular stir . After two more attacks on the apartment of a notary (car bomb) and the apartment of the recently retired gendarmerie commander, the attacks stopped abruptly.
No one was killed in the 18 attacks. A booby trap discovered in a forest could have killed people. An engineer was seriously injured in his hands after an attack on the airport's radar system when he picked up a flashlight fitted with a detonator, which then exploded. When the power lines of a bent electricity pylon fell on the motorway, accidents occurred, but no one was seriously injured.
Chronology of the attacks
- May 30, 1984: Cegedel - Beidweiler power pole
- June 2, 1984: Cegedel - Beidweiler power pole
- April 12, 1985: Ferienhaus - Bourscheid (no reliable connection with the other acts)
- April 27, 1985: Cegedel - Stafelter power pole
- May 7, 1985: Cegedel - Schléiwenhaff power pole
- May 27, 1985: Gendarmerie headquarters - Verlorenkost , Luxembourg (city)
- May 29, 1985: Cegedel Strommast - Itzig
- June 23, 1985: Gasworks in Hollerich, Luxembourg City
- July 5, 1985: Booby trap - Blaaschent
- July 5, 1985: Casemates - Luxembourg City
- July 26, 1985: Luxemburger Wort - Gasperich, Luxembourg City
- August 28, 1985: Police office in Glacis, Luxembourg City
- August 28, 1985: Ponts & Chaussées (Roads Administration) - Glacis, Luxembourg City
- September 30, 1985: Piscine Olympique - Kirchberg, Luxembourg City
- October 20, 1985: Palais de Justice - Luxembourg City
- November 9, 1985: Findel Airport
- November 30, 1985: Cegedel - Grünewald power pole
- December 2, 1985: Meeting of European Heads of State or Government - Kirchberg, Luxembourg City
- February 17, 1986: Notary Hellinckx - Cents, Luxembourg City
- March 25, 1986: Colonel Wagner - Belair (Luxembourg) , Luxembourg City
Documentation series
In 2005, the Luxembourg TV broadcaster RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg started a documentary series that, on the 20th anniversary of the individual attacks, dealt with the crimes, questioned witnesses and examined the work of the investigators. Initially ridiculed, the station showed errors in the investigation and published more and more new facts. Due to the renewed public interest, politics also took up the topic; this culminated in Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker receiving an anonymous witness from an RTL interview in order to later personally communicate his findings to the examining magistrate . The testimony of this witness was initially not taken seriously by the investigators and he was also put under pressure by them.
Further developments
After the investigation had rested for several years, it was resumed in 2004. Two members of the Brigade Mobile de la Gendarmerie (BMG), the former mobile task force of the Luxembourg Gendarmerie Grand-Ducale , are suspected of having carried out the attacks. It is believed that they wanted to achieve reforms, an increase and the arming of the police force through the attacks. The two police officers are charged with attempted manslaughter and are currently suspended; they deny any involvement.
A statement by the Director General of the Luxembourg Police, Pierre Reuland , caused a stir when he wrote a written statement behind the accused officers. During the years of the bombing affair, Reuland was in command of the special unit of the gendarmerie to which the accused had belonged. After public and political indignation about this statement, Reuland was warned by the responsible minister. As a result of an explosive letter from Chief Public Prosecutor Robert Biever , just a few weeks later, General Director Pierre Reuland and the Secretary General of the Police were relieved of their posts by the responsible minister Luc Frieden and transferred to other posts. However, neither are considered suspects.
Twelve days before the police officer, who was born in January 1940, died in mid-July 2004, investigators from the Luxembourg intelligence service, Service de Renseignement de l'Etat , are said to have asked him related questions, to which there is still no official answer. On July 2, 2014, the court announced that it would stay the trial indefinitely. The public prosecutor's office had previously announced that six other former, high-ranking officers and officials of the police would be filing an oath on suspicion of complicity, obstruction of punishment in office and false testimony, as those concerned were increasingly involved in contradictions in court. The examining magistrate would first have to make a decision as to whether the suspects should be co-charged before the trial can proceed.
On July 24, 2019, prosecutors announced that they would bring charges against nine other people. In the case of a tenth suspect, Ben Geiben , founder of a special police unit, she decided not to do so. If the responsible criminal chamber agrees, it can be assumed that the criminal process will have to be completely redone. The elite police officer Geiben had been counted as the main suspect by numerous observers.
particularities
Although there were several monetary demands, the perpetrators let the money deliveries fail. The perpetrators had information from insiders about the target objects and the actions of the investigating police, the gendarmerie and the secret service. So the perpetrators knew when which objects were being guarded, led the investigators by the nose and provoked them. Despite a large number of leads and witness statements, the Police Grand-Ducale did not succeed in catching the perpetrators.
conspiracy theories
One of the most popular conspiracy theories was a possible involvement of Prince Jean in the bombing affair. The suspicions ultimately led to the public prosecutor's office publishing a notice in which they exonerated him with an alibi.
Trivia
The Luxembourg comic character Superjhemp , who meets the bomber several times in his adventures, and the fictional novel Bommenteppech by the Luxembourg writer Josy Braun , published in 2004, also deal with the question of the bomber's identity .
Evaluation of the bombing affair from abroad
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on July 13, 2013 about the assessment of the bombing affair from abroad :
“Just sixty employees of an apparently very regular and disloyal ministry for the protection of the constitution, which was only noticed when members of the even more active police unit BMG were suspected of having procured the missing state security work themselves through a whopping eighteen bomb attacks in the 1980s. The ominous "Bommeleeër" affair with a dead has been preoccupying the country for almost thirty years - even that is record-breaking. "
Web links
- The Bommeleeër dossier on the Luxembourg word website
- Neies vum Bommeleeër ( Memento of February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), dossier on RTL.lu
- Chronology of the attacks in the Luxemburger Wort , January 25, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ audio; 8:45 min ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ The Bommeleeër trial goes into a long pause In: Luxemburger Wort . 2nd July 2014
- ↑ Steve Remesch: Bommeleeër: Nine people accused - Ben Geiben out. Luxemburger Wort, July 24, 2019, accessed on the same day.
- ↑ Markus Kompa: Affair Bommeleeër: Justice sees police leadership behind the series of attacks in the 80s, Telepolis , July 24, 2019, accessed on the same day.
- ^ Chronology of the attacks In: Luxemburger Wort . Retrieved April 19, 2017
- ↑ Dirk Schümer: Luxemburg's Political Morals: Just Save the World for a Short Time. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 13, 2013, accessed on May 14, 2014 .