Bommeleeër suspects have alibi

(CS) A last minute alibi has come through for the two suspects in the Bommeleeër affair, with a witness saying he was having coffee with both men at the time of the attack on the Kirchberg conference centre in 1985.

Witness François Hermes said in his testimony that he was with the two suspects, Marc Scheer and Jos Wilmes, for several hours on the day of the bombing, December 2, 1985. Hermes said he was seated with Scheer at the bar having coffee, with Wilmes sitting a few metres away from them.

Hermes' evidence states that they had been together since 4pm in the afternoon and were just about to leave the café when the bomb went off around 5.50pm. They ran outside, and Hermes said that he saw a car driving away without anybody following it.

Scheer and Wilmes then returned to the building, as they were in charge of personal security of some of the delegates, continued Hermes, who was the on-duty building technician.

After seeing media reports implicating Scheer and Wilmes as suspects in the case, the 72-year-old Hermes decided to give testimony, saying “Marc and Jos have nothing to with it.”

He also commented that there were a lot of people at the press café, saying there should be other witnesses able to confirm his statement.

On December 2, 1985, the Bommeleeër threw a bomb at the conference centre from the motorway in direction Trier. The explosion tore a hole in the lawn alongside the motorway, measuring 30 cm in depth and 60 cm in width.

While some 200 policemen were on site due to a council meeting, they could not apprehend the culprits, mainly because the motorway had not been blocked off, despite being seen as a weak point in security.

As several hundred journalists were on site to report on the meeting the bombing received much media attention even though it caused little damage.

The bombing on Kirchberg is one of 20 offences that Scheer and Wilmes have been accused of.

Hermes had contacted lawyer Gaston Vogel on Monday. Giving his version of events at a meeting on Tuesday, Vogel immediately contacted a notary, “so that no one can say I manipulated the declaration on oath.”