London MEP urges investigation of Jeremiah Duggan's death

3.49.47pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 12th Apr 2005

In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, London MEP and Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford has called on MEPs including the President of the Parliament to lend support to the efforts to get the death 2 years ago of Jeremiah Duggan in Wiesbaden, Germany, properly investigated.

London student Jeremiah died after being hit by vehicles on a motorway and the German authorities summarily dismissed the death as suicide without even interviewing witnesses or Jeremiah's contacts. But Jeremiah, who had been involved with an organisation called the Lyndon LaRouche network, was apparently fleeing in a state of terror when he died.

Considerable evidence amassed by Jeremiah's mother points to sustained mental pressure and harsh psychological interrogation by this group. Yet a recent attempt to get the case investigated by the Hessen State Prosecutor has been unsuccessful in spite of the verdict of a British coroner that there was nothing in German police evidence to suggest suicide.

Baroness Ludford said: "All the evidence points to the fact that Jeremiah's death was linked to his involvement with a mad but also dangerous and secretive anti-Semitic cult. Since he was Jewish, this is significant, but there seems to be a wilful determination by the authorities to ignore the context."

ENDS

Notes

1. Baroness Ludford's speech to the European Parliament, 11th April 2005:

Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, two years ago a young man from London named Jeremiah Duggan died when he was hit by vehicles on a motorway near Wiesbaden in Germany. The German authorities very quickly decided that it was a case of suicide and failed even to take witness statements or statements from those who last saw him. There seems to have been a deliberate avoidance of considering all the facts in the case.

In spite of considerable evidence gathered by Mrs Erica Duggan, his mother, that Jeremiah died in very worrying and suspicious circumstances, last week the Hessen State Prosecutor decided not to investigate. The evidence she presented concerns the organisation that Jeremiah was involved in immediately before he met his death and which appears to be a sinister anti-Semitic sect. It may be that he was being hounded by it and mentally tortured. It is called the Lyndon LaRouche network or the Schiller Institute. It recruits young people in Europe to a dangerous cult. Some of its ideas are plain rubbish but there are also plenty of destructive, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In these circumstances, the position of the prosecutor that her job is not to safeguard the public from known dangers is inexplicable.

I shall be raising this with MEP colleagues and may wish to ask you to intervene at an appropriate time. The European Convention on Human Rights imposes an obligation to protect life, which must mean investigating suspicious deaths.

2. Further details of the case of Jeremiah Duggan can be found at http://www.justiceforjeremiah.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Duggan

3. The Lyndon LaRouche network was formed by American perennial presidential candidate and convicted criminal Lyndon LaRouche. It operates as an international political network that holds far-right views, propagating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. See Political Research Associates, a US think-tank that monitors right-wing groups, for further information: http://www.publiceye.org/