Misplaced Pages

Death of Jeremiah Duggan

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Juliancolton (talk | contribs) at 18:04, 14 October 2009 (AfD closed as keep). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 18:04, 14 October 2009 by Juliancolton (talk | contribs) (AfD closed as keep)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jeremiah Duggan

Jeremiah 'Jerry' Duggan (November 10, 1980–March 27, 2003) was a British student at the Sorbonne who died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany. His death became controversial because it occurred while he was attending a youth cadre school organized by the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Youth Movement, part of an international movement led by perennial American presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche and his wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

The German police ruled that Duggan's death was a suicide after hearing that he had been struck by several cars after running down a busy road. A British inquest rejected that verdict in November 2003, after hearing the LaRouche movement described by the London Metropolitan Police as a "political cult with sinister and dangerous connections," the coroner ruling that Duggan had died while in a "state of terror."

Since the British ruling, the Duggan family and several members of the British House of Commons, House of Lords, and the European parliament have pressed the German police to re-open their investigation. Lyndon LaRouche has said the controversy has been stirred up by his political enemies, including Tony Blair, while a spokesman for the German public prosecution service has suggested the family simply cannot accept that Duggan committed suicide. The family's request for a judicial review is currently before Germany's Federal Constitutional Court.

Background

Early life and education

Duggan was born in London, the son of Hugo, who was born in Ireland, and Erica, who is Jewish and who followed Jewish traditions while raising her son. He attended Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, Sussex, after which he spent some time in Israel. In 2001, he moved to Paris to study French at the British Institute, part of the University of London, and subsequently began a degree in English Literature at the Sorbonne.

LaRouche movement

Main articles: LaRouche movement, LaRouche Youth Movement, and Schiller Institute

Lyndon LaRouche and his wife run a global political movement from their bases in Leesburg, Virginia, and Wiesbaden, Germany. It consists of a network of think tanks, publications, political action committees, and a youth cadre, which promote the view that LaRouche is a figure of international political importance. The network has been associated in the mainstream media with violence against its opponents, fraudulent use of donations, aggressive recruiting techniques, the dissemination of conspiracy theories, and antisemitism. LaRouche is particularly critical of Britain. He has accused British intelligence of being involved in global brainwashing, has said the Queen is involved in drug-dealing, and in 1999 accused advisors to the British royal family of threatening to assassinate him.

The movement's members insist the allegations are misrepresentations, and that LaRouche is a brilliant and widely misunderstood leader. Larouche strongly denies the charge of antisemitism, calling racial and religious hatred "the most evil expression of criminality to be seen on the planet today."

In Germany, the movement is represented by the Schiller Institute, which organized the conference Duggan attended. The Berliner Zeitung writes that it has a following of about 300 in that country, and is "the cult soliciting most aggressively in German streets," next to Scientology.

Duggan's involvement

Duggan's first came into contact with the movement in March 2003 in a street in Paris, when he bought a newspaper published by Solidarité et Progrès, the movement's political party in France, and accepted an invitation to a three-day Schiller Institute conference in Wiesbaden.

The Washington Post reports that the mood of the conference was "apocalyptic," with LaRouche himself the keynote speaker. He told the audience that the U.S. was using the war in Iraq to ignite global warfare, and that the Bush administration was "totally committed to worldwide fascist imperialism." He said the plot to launch a new world war was being influenced by people who "like Hitler, admire Nietzsche, but being Jewish ... couldn't qualify for Nazi Party leadership, even though their fascism was absolutely pure! As extreme as Hitler! They sent them to the United States."

Duggan's mother says that a senior member of the Schiller Institute told her Jerry "reacted strongly when he heard the Jews being blamed for the Iraq war. He had stood up and exclaimed: 'But I'm a Jew!'" After the conference, Duggan attended a LaRouche cadre school in a nearby youth hostel. According to the Berliner Zeitung, another participant said that his declaration that he was a Jew marked him out—they "really put Jeremiah through the wringer for that," the witness said—as did his story that he had undergone family therapy at the Tavistock Clinic in London when he was seven years old, during his parents' divorce. The LaRouche movement believes that the related Tavistock Institute is involved with British intelligence and is a "brainwashing center."

Death

At 4:15 a.m. on March 27, Duggan telephoned his girlfriend in France. She told the BBC that he sounded agitated. "He was talking very quietly. He said that they were doing experiments on humans with computers ... He couldn't string a sentence together properly. I asked him who was doing these experiments, and he said the government. He said they were causing lots of pain to their arms and legs. I tried to find out where he was, but he wouldn't say."

Duggan telephoned his mother in London just before 4:30 a.m., saying he was in trouble and frightened, and wanted to see her. He began to spell out the name of the town he was in, at which point the line went dead. Forty-five minutes later, he ran out on to the Berliner Straße, or B-445, a busy road in the Wiesbaden suburb of Erbenheim, near the LaRouche headquarters, and five kilometers from the apartment where he had been staying. Four drivers told the police that Duggan ran in front of them. A British inquest heard in November 2003 that he was hit by one car, but continued running along the road for another kilometer until a second car knocked him down, and a third car ran over him.

The investigation

The inquest

The German police are reported to have decided it was a suicide within three hours of the death. The British inquest heard from a psychiatrist that Duggan had no history of mental illness, and that a severe stress reaction that can be caused by a rapid change in a person's belief system. Duggan's mother told the court she believed that Duggan had been the victim of a recruiting technique known as "ego stripping", in which recruits are made to doubt all their basic beliefs, and which psychiatrists believe can lead to a mental breakdown. The court heard that a London Metropolitan Police report had described the LaRouche movement as "a political cult with sinister and dangerous connections." The coroner, Dr. William Dolman, rejected a verdict of suicide, and delivered a narrative verdict, ruling that Duggan had received fatal head injuries when hit by a car, and that he had been in a "state of terror" when he died:

Jeremiah Joseph Duggan received fatal head injuries when he ran into the road in Weisbaden and was hit by two private motor cars. What other fact do we know that I must add? I really must add that he had earlier been in a state of terror. It is a world not commonly used in a coroner's court but no other word would reflect his state of mind at the time.

Calls for a new inquiry

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has been asked by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to reopen the investigation.

In July 2006 and March 2007, Erica Duggan's lawyers asked the British attorney general to order a second inquest, which was refused. The family based their request on a review of evidence conducted by pathologists and a forensic photographer they had commissioned. The photographer is reported to have said there were no traces of skin, hair, blood, or clothing on the vehicles that allegedly hit Duggan, or on the road, and no tyre marks. The family has subsequently advanced the theory that Duggan may have been murdered, an allegation firmly rejected by the German authorities.

Labour peer Lord Janner of Braunstone also requested a second inquest. In November 2006, Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center asked Brigitte Zypries, the German Justice Minister, to re-open the German investigation, and in May 2007, 96 British MPs requested a second inquest and a review by the German authorities. As of November 2007, 100 Members of Parliament had signed an early day motion (EDM) calling for a new inquiry, while The Policy Partnership, a UK-based political communication strategies, had reportedly written to EDM members on Larouche's behalf stating that the German inquiry was adequate.

The Duggans requested judicial review of the attorney general's decision to refuse a second inquest. This was granted by the high court in London in November 2008, which ruled that the case had "unusual features" and was thus worthy of a full review.

Legal steps in Germany

The Wiesbaden public prosecutor's office formally closed the case on 2 June 2003. Erica Duggan appealed that decision, which was rejected by the Oberlandesgericht on 19 July 2006, then in October 2006 sought a judicial review from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. The court is now considering the Duggan family's appeal against the original German verdict of suicide.

Response

German prosecutors' response

A spokesman for the Wiesbaden prosecutor's office said the case was a "cut and dried suicide." In April 2007, Hartmut Ferse of the Wiesbaden public prosecutor's office told the Wiesbadener Kurier that the investigation had been very thorough. He showed the reporter ten thick folders of documents related to the case and said that no other apparent suicide had ever caused so much work for his office. He suggested that the murder theory developed because Duggan's mother cannot accept that her son committed suicide. The newspaper refers to the various theories as "myths" ("Legende"), adding that the theories keep gaining adherents, but no evidence.

LaRouche movement response

A spokesman for the LaRouche movement suggested Duggan was suffering from a mental illness, and that the stories about his death developed only after political interference. The spokesman wrote that, after Duggan's death, his mother met with representatives of the Schiller Institute in a "sympathetic" meeting, and that her attitude changed only after British minister Elizabeth Symons intervened on behalf of the British Foreign Office.

In November 2006, LaRouche issued a statement saying the allegations were a hoax stemming from a campaign orchestrated by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President of the United States, and Cheney's wife. In March 2007, he said the campaign was led by the "British Fabian friends of Dick Cheney and Al Gore," and was aimed at discrediting him over his opposition to the Iraq war and his criticism of the man-made global warming hypothesis.

In September 2007, the LaRouche Political Action Committee published a letter that it said was obtained under the British Freedom of Information Act stating that, on July 14, 2003, a member of the London Metropolitan Police Service had concluded that Duggan's death had been "fully investigated" in Germany.

Popular media

The British band Starsailor have written a song about him, "Jeremiah," which is included on their album On The Outside.

Notes

  1. ^ Townsend, Mark and Doward, Jamie."New evidence shows 'suicide' student was beaten to death", The Observer, March 25, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "Townsend-Doward" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Townsend, Mark. "The student, the shadowy cult and a mother's fight for justice", The Observer, October 31, 2004.
  3. Steinberg, Jeffrey. "The Bizarre Case of Baroness Symons", Executive Intelligence Review, June 25, 2004; LaRouche, Lyndon H. "Cheney Behind Press Campaign, Duggan Hoax Rewarmed Again", Lyndon LaRouche political action committee, November 8, 2006; "London 'Friends of Dick Cheney and Al Gore' Behind New Slander of LaRouche", Lyndon LaRouche political action committee, March 25, 2007.
  4. ^ Degen, Wolfgang, "Nur die Legende hat ein langes Leben", Wiesbadener Kurier, April 19, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "Degen" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. Muir, Hugh. Diary, The Guardian, July 1, 2009.
  6. See, for example;
  7. Newsnight, BBC, 1980, date unknown. LaRouche told Newsnight: "Of course she's pushing drugs ... As the head of the gang that is pushing drugs, she knows it's happening and she isn't stopping it."See here for the interview, cited in Samuels, Tim. "Jeremiah Duggan and Lyndon LaRouche," Newsnight, BBC, 2006, possibly November 28, 2006. The rest of the segment continues here and here.
  8. Burdman, Mark. "British Magazine Publishes Death Threat vs. LaRouche", Executive Intelligence Review, August 13, 1999.
  9. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. "On The Press Hoax Against the Pope: Britain's Bernard Lewis & His Crimes", Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee, September 17, 2006.
  10. ^ Nordhausen, Frank. "A Mother's Investigations", Berliner Zeitung, April 4, 2007, page 3.
  11. ^ Witt, April. "No Joke", The Washington Post, October 24, 2004.
  12. Samuels, Tim. "Jeremiah Duggan and Lyndon LaRouche," Newsnight, 2006, possibly November 28, 2006. begins here, continues, concludes.
  13. Kirkby, Terry. "The Lost Boy", The Independent, August 28, 2003.
  14. Samuels, Tim. "Jeremiah Duggan and Lyndon LaRouche," Newsnight, 2006, possibly November 28, 2006.
  15. ^ Rayner, Gordon. "It was murder, say family of boy in cult suicide riddle", Daily Mail, March 27, 2007.
  16. ^ Midgley, Carol. "Student died in terror of cult", The Times, November 7, 2003. Cite error: The named reference "Midgley" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  17. Foggo, Daniel. "German police probe into British student's death was 'inadequate'", The Daily Telegraph, March 26, 2007.
  18. Mintz, John. "Ideological Odyssey: From Old Left to Far Right", Washington Post, 1985.
  19. Coroner's Court transcript, The Justice for Jeremiah Campaign, accessed October 7, 2009.
  20. ^ "Wiesenthal Centre Appeals to German Justice Minister: "Reopen Investigation into Death of Jewish Student Attending Larouche Movement Seminar on Iraq War", Simon Weisenthal Center, November 10, 2006.
  21. Nugent, Helen. "Call for new inquest on Jewish student linked to far-right 'cult'", The Times, March 28, 2007.
  22. Muir, Hugh. "MPs want inquiry on Jewish man's death in Germany to be reopened", The Guardian, May 24, 2007. Text of the Early Day Motion
  23. Hugh Muir. Diary. The Guardian (London), Final Edition, November 2, 2007.
  24. Press release, Leigh Day.
  25. Hirsch, Afua. Family of student killed in Germany to challenge refusal for new inquest, The Guardian, November 6, 2008.
  26. Press release by two German law offices employed by Erica Duggan German language version
  27. ibid.
  28. Mother returns to where son died to raise awareness, JTA, March 29, 2009.
  29. ^ Steinberg, Jeffrey. "The Bizarre Case of Baroness Symons", Executive Intelligence Review, June 25, 2004.
  30. LaRouche, Lyndon H. "Cheney Behind Press Campaign, Duggan Hoax Rewarmed Again", Lyndon LaRouche political action committee, November 8, 2006.
  31. "London 'Friends of Dick Cheney and Al Gore' Behind New Slander of LaRouche", Lyndon LaRouche political action committee, March 25, 2007.
  32. The Jeremiah Duggan Case, The Facts, LaRouche Political Action Committee.
  33. Website of Starsailor, retrieved August 28, 2006.

Further reading

LaRouche movement
History
Active organizations
Defunct organizations
Members
Members who separated
from the movement
Critics
Related persons
Categories: