Prince Jean Talks Bommeleeër

Photo: Guy Wolff / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

Prince Jean has given an exclusive interview to Luxembourg's biggest newspaper, the Luxemburger Wort, about his alleged involvement in the Affair Bommeleeër and how the accusations of having planted bombs in the Grand Duchy affected him. The interview was published in today's printed edition and the online version only has a teaser. 

It seems that the interview goes a bit deeper than when Prince Jean gave a press conference in May. For example, he acknowledges that his wedding to Hélène Vestur caused conflict with his parents but no lasting rift. [Note by moi: At the time of her wedding Mme Vestur told the press that she hadn't met her parents-in-law yet. However today, years after their divorce, she is still invited to all kinds of family events.] The younger brother of Grand Duke Henri also expresses the wish that those who falsely accused him of an involvement in the Bommeleeër case would acknowledge that they were wrong.

Source: Wort

Prince Jean Talks to Press

Photo: Alain Lamesch / RTL / RTL.lu

During the last few days, there had been a lot of rumours and stories about the strictness of the scheduled meeting of Prince Jean with the press during which the brother of Grand Duke Henri wanted to give a statement about the Affair Bommeleeër; only selected journalists, only one per media, no one was allowed to record the meeting, etc. Turns out, things weren't as strict as previously reported and the media is even allowed to publish recordings of the meeting though with the request not to publish it in its entirety. The press meeting wasn't organised by the cour grand-ducale but instead by a private communications agency. However, Prince Jean stated that he had the full support of his entire family.

Some short quotes from the meeting by Prince Jean, translated by me from this Wort article in German. All in all, Prince Jean talked to the press for 70 minutes.

"It was very harsh when I first heard about the rumours concerning my person. I almost had to laugh as the idea seemed so absurd. Then my brother [Grand Duke Henri] told me that it was serious and that the police were going to interrogate me."

"I was devastated. My parents raised my siblings and me with a sense of duty and responsiblity as well as great love for our country. To excercise discretion was also very important. Based on our education, we always felt a strong bond to the country. You may know this feeling when you move abroad and then come back home, there is this certain gut feeling."

[As an answer to a question] "It's probably true that the defence has availed the opportunity to cast doubt over my name or the whole trial in general. That's their game, their tactics and also one of the main reason why I am here today. I want to give answers to all questions concerning my person."

"I'm certainly neither the first nor the last person who has become a victim of rumours and suspicions. I can tell you that if something like this happens to yourself, it is very hurtful. The manner in which my name has been and continues to be linked with this affair sits heavily on my stomach. I would like for this to stop. I have tried to answer all questions as best as I could and if there are going to be more accusations by the press, I will consider to take action. I believe that this is understandable. I have both a private and a professional life. Things are continuously written about me and I do not have the chance to defend myself. I don't want to let this go unchallenged, if you want to write about me, please give me the chance to defend myself against those accusations."

Prince Jean also stressed that his family stood behind him and supported him throughout the whole time. None of them believed that he was involved in the series of bombings during the 1980's. He did not take into consideration not to talk to the police as he felt that it was his duty. Both his father and older brother advised him to talk to the press today.

A short direct quote by Prince Jean about how he felt when he was interrogated by the police - when the policemen looked into my eyes and asked me where I was on certain days, "I felt like I was dreaming" - can be found at RTL. RTL also has a video of the meeting.

Source: Wort, RTL

Prince Jean Invites Press

Prince Jean, younger brother of Grand Duke Henri, has invited the press to the Abbaye de Neumünster for coming Monday to talk about the Affair Bommeleeër. The invitation was sent via a communication agency to selected journalists this morning. During the meeting, Prince Jean will talk about his view on the events happening during the 1980's as well as rumours and ambiguities about an implication of his person. He will likely also give an explanation about why he have up his rights to the Luxembourgish throne. After February's testimony in court, Prince Jean had already announced that he would give a more extensive press interview in the future.

Source: RTL

Closing the Case...

Photo: Gerry Huberty / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

...at least for us unless there should be some new major revelation which I find rather doubtful. And so here we go with our last post about the Affair Bommeleeër that has kept us busy during the last few weeks and months. Today, Prince Jean, his former wife Hélène Vestur and Prince Guillaume appeared in front of court to give their testimonies. Their testimonies can be found here, here and here, respectively.

A news report about today can be found at RTL, who also have Prince Jean's press statement as an audio file. Pictures are available at Wort.

The round off the day, the cour grand-ducale also issued a statement saying that the princes were happy to give their testimonies in the hope that all the allegations and rumours which have marred the reputation of the Grand Ducal Family in general and that of Prince Jean in particular will now find an end. The cour also expressed their trust in the justice and encourage those who have knowledge about the reason behind the bombings to come forward.

Amen.

Prince Jean's Testimony

Photo: Gerry Huberty / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

The court saved the most interesting for the end and thus Prince Jean was the third one to give his statement in the Bommeleeër case in court today. The prince's former wife Hélène Vestur and his younger brother Prince Guillaume had been called upon beforehand. For their testimonies, have a look here and here respectively.

Prince Jean preferred to answer all the questions he was asked in French, something that is his right in Luxembourg where you can chose whether you want to give your testimony in Luxembourgish, German or French.

Asked when he first heard about the rumours of him being involved in the bombings, Prince Jean said that he firstly heard about it in 2005 when he was told so by his older brother. At the time of the bombings, he finished up university education and started to work. Prince Jean believes that his family wanted to protect him from any unnecessary distractions and thus did not tell him about the rumours. Later he was very busy as he worked 80 hours a week in Paris to support his own family. Defense lawyer Gaston Vogel could not understand the non-reaction of Prince Jean in 2005 but the prince said that he was a witness and preferred to only talk to the police.

About November 9th, 1985, the day a deceased witness claimed to have seen Prince Jean in Luxembourg, the prince said that he spent the 9th and 10th at a hunt organised by the Giscard d'Estaing family. The night from 7th to 8th, he spent with his then girlfriend and later wife Hélène Vestur though he cannot reconstuct where he was during the night from 8th to 9th. He, however, was certain that he did not make a quick trip to Luxembourg via helicopter or car as Vogel suggested. Vogel also asked why Prince Jean did not have the night included in his alibi to which judge Conter answered that it speaks for the prince that he did not claim to have an alibi for the night if he could not prove it. Hélène Vestur did not accompany him to the hunt as they were a new couple and she wasn't invited.

Asked if he knew Ben Geiben or Jos Wilmes, had contacts with the CIA or was a member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), Prince Jean answered no.

During his time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the prince learned how to handle guns and bazookas but wasn't educated on how to work with bombs and booby traps.

Prince Jean also said that it was a voluntary decision by himself to give up his rights to the throne. Prince Jean told that things were different in his family and that the Grand Duke also always decides about marriages. His wife being a commoner would not have been a problem per se as it wasn't for his older brother Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, who the family had known for years. Prince Jean, however, presented them with a fait accompli as his fiancée was already pregnant. While they were a new couple in November 1985, their daughter Marie-Gabrielle was born in September 1986. Neither Grand Duke Jean nor Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte agreed with the wedding that happened in 1987.

At the time of his renunciation, there already were four people ahead of him in the line of succession which had become very hypothetical to him. Already at the age of 14, his father, Grand Duke Jean, had told him that he would not become Grand Duke and thus make a living for himself which he did. Prince Jean decided to built his own life and career outside of Luxembourg.

Prince Jean also cleared up some confusion that was often stated by the criminal court, the media and even former prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Like we stated before, Prince Jean did sign away his rights to the throne but he kept his title "Prince of Luxembourg, Prince of Nassau" as well as his styling as HRH all along.

At the end of this testimony as well as in a statement to the media, Prince Jean pointed out how hurtful the false implication of his person in the Bommeleeër case were for him, his family and the entire country. He elaborated that he was raised with a big love for Luxembourg and that he hopes that whoever was behind the bombings will be found and punished.

Prince Guillaume's Testimony

Photo: Gerry Huberty / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

After Hélène Vestur, Prince Guillaume was the next to be called upon to give his testimony in the Bommeleeër case in court today. It, however, did not bring a whole lot of new information. In fact, even the judge made a comment about not understanding why he was summoned to court on the request of the defense lawyers if they did not have any questions. Prince Guillaume stated that he did not take part in any of the bombings and did not have an own car in Luxembourg as he pursued university studies abroad.

The biggest revelation, however, came before Prince Guillaume talked about the bombings when he stated that due to his car accident in 2000 in which he suffered a fractured skull and remained in a coma for a several weeks, he has lapses of memory. For example he is not able to remember either his own wedding or the births of his children.

Source: Wort, Tageblatt

Hélène Vestur's Testimony

Photo: Gerry Huberty / Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

Today is the day, Prince Jean, his former wife Hélène Vestur and Prince Guillaume appeared in court today. Both Tageblatt and Wort offer written live coverage of the testimonies and this one as well as two upcoming posts, will feature the testimonies given by the three members of the Grand Ducal Family given in front of court in the case today.

Hélène Vestur told the court that she only learned about the Affair Bommeleeër and an alleged implication of her former husband in 2006 when he called her. When she first heard about the rumours, she found them to be so absurd that she almost started laughing. Vestur said that Prince Jean could not remember exact details about what happened on the weekend of November 9, 1985 when a witness claimed to have seen him at the Findel Airport in Luxembourg. His former wife thus went through old letters she had kept and found some about the weekend as they had an argument about it.

Hélène Vestur and Prince Jean had planned to spend the weekend of November 9th and 10th together in Paris but the prince changed his plans last-minute to attend a hunt organised by the Giscard d'Estaing family. Prince Jean had just come back from the United States where he had attended university and seemed very positive, motivated and full of ideas to his then girlfriend. Before he went to the hunt, he made a quick stop in Paris to meet Madame Vestur and they had an argument about the fact that Prince Jean preferred to attend the hunt. He came back to Paris on Sunday evening (November 10th) and stayed there until Monday morning.

About the fact that Prince Jean gave up his rights, Hélène Vestur said that it was a voluntary decision by her former husband as he wanted to be free. She had become pregnant in 1985 after only having dated a rather short period of time but Prince Jean did not make a fuss about it and said that they would get married. Grand Duke Jean, however, was against the marriage. According to Madame Vestur's statement, she also was under the impression that it was more Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte who was not in favour of the wedding. She never met either Grand Duke Jean or Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte prior to her wedding in 1987 but only after her wedding when they had dinner together in Paris. Her relationship with her husband's family wasn't very easy in the beginning. She also stated that it took Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa a long time to convince his parents to give permission to their marriage.

According to Hélène Vestur, Prince Jean wasn't forced to give up his rights to the throne but decided to do so to be free. As his older brother, Grand Duke Henri, had already fathered three sons, there were four people ahead of Prince Jean in the succession and thus the matter had come very hypothetical to him.

Hélène Vestur couldn't remember to have talked about the whole Affair Bommeleeër with either her former husband or with his family prior to 2006. She said that they were quite removed from life in Luxembourg and built their own life in Paris. They were also quite removed from the cour grand-ducale as Madame Vestur stated that they only learned about a name change of their children by an arrête grand-ducal through a letter. Unfortunately, neither Wort nor Tageblatt stated what name change but I guess it was that they were created counts and countesses of Nassau in 1995.

In her finishing sentences, Hélène Vestur said that her children feel very sad that their father has been implicated in the bombings and that she is surprised herself that such a minor detail as someone claiming to have seen Prince Jean at one of the sites of the bombings hour before the bomb exploded would have such a big impact. She also said that she can, however, understand all the rumours within the 1980's but that she is sure that her former husband wasn't involved in the bombings.


Source: Wort, Tageblatt

"It Was (Not) the Prince"

After all the confusion which prince it actually was, I can now tell you that it wasn't one of the princes at all, at least according to former attorney general Camille Wampach. During a hearing of Wampach this morning at the retirement home where he lives, he stated that he never said the words "(We think) it was the prince" to former diplomat Henri Etienne. Tomorrow we will get the next episode of the Grand Ducal Family and the Affair Bommeleeër as Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume are scheduled to appear in court. Let's hope that it will finally clear the air on the whole matter and put and end to the "lead Prince Jean" that never seemed very believable in the first place.


Source: Wort

And the Saga Continues...

I think I might have missed my calling as a criminal justice journalist: Today, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister between 1995 and 2013, as well as Henri Etienne, former diplomat, and his wife were summoned to the court in the Bommeleeër trial to talk about the "lead Prince Jean".

Former prime minister Juncker told that he set up a meeting with with the witness who claimed to have seen Prince Jean for November 14th, 2005 through the journalists who interviewed Beffort for an RTL documentary. Asked who the well-known person was, Beffort gave Juncker a piece of paper on which Prince Jean's name was written. The witness also told the then prime minister that he had been visited by people who told him to never tell anything to anyone about seeing Prince Jean at Findel Airport the night before a bomb exploded there.

The following day, Juncker called Grand Duke Henri and set up a meeting for the 16th to inform the head of state about what Beffort had told him. At first, Juncker was a little reluctant to tell the court about the meeting with the Grand Duke as those meetings are considered confidential. He, however, revealed that Grand Duke Henri was shocked about Beffort's statement and could not believe it.

Asked if he knew anything about Prince Jean's reasons to sign away his rights to the throne, Juncker said that he wasn't prime minister at the time and that the court should ask Jacques Santer, who was the head of government during the time of the bombings. Juncker, however, revealed that Grand Duke Henri didn't agree with the decision and would, in fact, like to reinstate his brother into the line of succession.

In addition, Henri Etienne and his wife, whose names you might remember from the Prince Jean/Prince Guillaume confusion last week, were heard. The hearings didn't bring much new information apart from a little more confusion on the question whether Etienne told attorney general Biever simply "the prince" or "Prince Guillaume" when they talked about a conversation between Etienne and former attorney general Wampach. While Etienne insists that he said "the prince," Biever is sure that Etienne said "Prince Guillaume." Etienne's wife confirmed that during a dinner with them Wampach said about the Bommeleeër case, "We think it was the prince." However, neither Etienne nor his wife did believe Wampach as they suspect Ben Geiben, former policeman and founder of the BMG, to be the Bommeleeër.

A few comments from my side: It's interesting to note that Grand Duke Henri would - if he could which I'm fairly certain he can't - give his brother Prince Jean back all his rights. It was also the current Grand Duke, who gave his niece and nephews the titles of princesses and princes of Nassau and the styles of royal highnesses in 2004 and thus making them equal - in style and title at least - to all other children of younger sons of a Grand Duke. Judging from pictures of christenings and such, Prince Jean's siblings and many royal and noble relatives and friends always supported him and his first wife, Hélène Vestur. I can't believe that they would have kept in close contact if Prince Jean had indeed been the Bommeleeër.

It is often stated in court that Prince Jean also lost his titles and was simply "Jean Nassau" after he signed away his rights. I'm fairly certain that this is not the case as he was always referred to as Prince of Luxembourg and Prince of Nassau even after his renunciation. While he did lose his rights, he neither lost his titles nor the style of a Royal Highness. It will be interesting to see what Prince Jean has to say about his renunciation on Thursday when he is scheduled to give a statement. The official reason given was "business reasons", which, by the way, was also the official reason for Prince Louis' renunciation of his rights to the throne in 2006. Prince Guillaume and Prince Félix, however, seem to be getting by business-wise, just fine without renouncing their rights, so everyone who can count one and one together knows that it more likely had to do with both Prince Jean and Prince Louis fathering children out of wedlock.

FYI, I have added a label to all the posts dealing with this trial, check them out here to learn what has happened thus far.


Source: Tageblatt, Wort

Former Grand Duke to Appear in Front of Court?

No day without news in the Bommeleeër trial it seems. Today, defending lawyer Gaston Vogel has expressed the wish to hear Grand Duke Jean, Luxembourg's head of state between 1964 and 2000, in court. According to a report by investigators about an interrogation with former general attorney Camille Wampach, Wampach stated that the rumours about a possible involvement of the former Grand Duke's second son Prince Jean started when he was "deprived" of his rights to the throne. Vogel is bothered about the wording as it is common knowledge that Prince Jean voluntarily gave up his rights to the throne after the birth of his first daughter and prior to his wedding to the child's mother. 

The defending lawyer would now like to question Grand Duke Jean about whether he deprived his son of his rights or whether Prince Jean gave them up by himself. While the court hasn't dismissed Vogel's wish which he expressed in oral form, they prefer to hear Prince Jean and his brother Prince Guillaume before making a decision about hearing the former Grand Duke.

Source: Wort

Prince Guillaume As Bommeleeër? Or Not?!

The Affair Bommeleeër gets even more confusing and abstruse. A little more of someone heard someone saying that someone has said has brought out that someone thinks that Prince Guillaume might have been one of the bomb planters and even when I put in names, it does not get any less confusing. Thus far, someone else had always said that they thought they had seen Prince Jean at one of the sites of the bombings and another someone else somehow started a rumour that he might have been implicated in the bombings.

As to Prince Guillaume: assigned state attorney Georges Oswald yesterday read a statement by a witness that said that the attorney general at the time of the bombings, Camille Wampach, told Henri Etienne, a former diplomat, that Prince Guillaume was one of the bombers. Etienne apparently told or wrote to Robert Biever, attorney general, earlier this year about what Wampach told him though I'm not entirely sure by who the witness statement read exactly was.

However, since yesterday Etienne approached Luxembourg's biggest newspaper Luxemburger Wort to say that neither he nor Wampach had ever implicated Prince Guillaume but that Wampach only said "et war de Prënz" ("it was the prince"). According to Etienne, Wampach meant Prince Jean with the statement and Prince Guillaume only came into the conversation as Etienne knew him personally. Neither Wampach nor Etienne apparently mentioned what the motive of either of the princes would have been and so the Bommeleeër trial remains a case of someone heard someone saying that someone said.

Source: Tageblatt, Wort #1, Wort #2

Louis Giscard d'Estaing Summoned

Louis Giscard d'Estaing, a French politician, former member of the National Assembly of France and son of former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, will be heard in court in the Bommeleeër trial on March 5. A now deceased witness claimed that he saw Prince Jean near Findel Airport during the night of November 9, 1985 where later that day a bomb exploded. Grand Duke Henri's younger brother, however, says that he was at a hunt in France during that time, an alibi which is supported by Giscard d'Estaing. Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume will make an appearance on Thursday next week.

Written statement by Giscard d'Estaing (Photo: L'essentiel)

Source: Tageblatt

Princes to Appear in Court Next Week

On Thursday next week, February 27th that is, Prince Jean will appear in court to give his testimony in the Bommeleeër case. The name of Grand Duke Henri's younger brother popped up in the investigation of the series of bombings in Luxembourg during the 1980's here and there. One witness claimed to have seen the prince at Findel Airport in 1985 just hours before a bomb exploded there. Prince Jean, however, has an alibi for the day which is supported by, among others, Louis Giscard d'Estaing, a French politician and son of former French president Valérie Giscard d'Estaing. 

Prince Guillaume is also scheduled to appear in court next week to give a statement about a meeting between Prince Jean and state attorney Robert Biever prior to the official investigation at his house in 2006. (For more information about the Bommeleeër case, have a look here.)

The court will already talk about the "lead Prince Jean" today though there probably won't be any new revelations considering that Eugène Beffort, the witness who claimed to have seen the prince at the airport, died in 2012.

Source: L'essentiel

Luxarazzi 101: Prince Jean and the Affair Bommeleeër

The Affair Bommeleeër and an alleged involvement of the Grand Duke's brother, Prince Jean in the case remains a story of interest for many. Back in June last year, we already wrote about the story in relation to the secret service scandal that had just broken and ultimately led to new elections and a new government for the Grand Duchy. This time around, we are solely going to focus on the alleged involvement of Prince Jean.

Last year, the so-called Bommeleeër (bomb planter) trial started. At the center of the trial are two members of the Brigade mobile de la Gendarmerie (BMG), an elite police unit, accused of being responsible for 18 bombings that shook Luxembourg between May 1984 and April 1986. The accused Josh Wilmes and Marco Scheer are alleged to have carried out the bombings with two other now-deceased colleagues. The alleged aim of the bombings was to achieve increased funding for law enforcement. Whether Wilmes and Scheer actually are among the bombers remains unclear. 

While the prosecution has sought to prove that the two elite policemen were behind the attacks, the defense has argued that those responsible were members of the NATO-led Stay Behind network. A possible Stay Behind involvement was supported by a statement of the son of a former German intelligence officer who coordinated the missions in Germany as well as the Benelux countries during the 1980's. Similar attacks happened during the same time in Italy to create the conditions for a political shift to the right. Curiously according to state attorney Robert Biever, no fewer than 88 from a total of 125 pieces of evidence disappeared in the course of the investigation of the two accused. The list of witnesses summoned to give testimonies in front of the criminal court reads like the who is who of Luxembourgish society: former prime ministers, government and secret service officials, historians, policemen, and two members of the Grand Ducal Family, Prince Jean and his younger brother Prince Guillaume.

Rumours about a possible involvement of Prince Jean in the bombings started sometime in the 1980's. The exact reason for those rumours -- Do rumours have a reason? -- is hard to find these days. The rumours, however, were fueled by two occurrences, the statement of a Luxembourgish police officer and Prince Jean's renunciation of his rights to the throne.

On September 26, 1986, the cour grand-ducale suddenly announced that Prince Jean, the second of three sons of Grand Duke Jean, had renounced his rights to the Luxembourgish throne citing "business reasons". Earlier that same month, Prince Jean had become the father of a little daughter named Marie-Gabrielle but little did the Luxembourgish public know about the happy news. Prince Jean wasn't married to the mother of his daughter, Hélène Vestur, and the pregnancy and birth kept a secret.

Photo: Point de Vue

When asked by Point de Vue which baby names she liked, Hélène stated at the time of their wedding in 1987, that she would like to call a daughter Marie-Gabrielle. Only when the couple's second child, a boy named Constantin, was born, a girl suddenly appeared with the family in Point de Vue pictures. That girl was Marie-Gabrielle. Neither she nor Constantin held a title after their births but only the surname 'Nassau'. Only in 1995, Prince Jean's children and wife were elevated to the rank of Counts and Countesses of Nassau and Marie-Gabrielle, Constantin, Wenceslas and Carl became Princesses and Princes of Nassau in November 2004.

The Luxembourgish public did not know about the real reasons for Prince Jean's renunciation of his rights (the birth of his daughter) and thus speculated whether there might have been others than "business reasons", an explanation that never seemed very convincing to most.

In May 1987, former policeman and founder of the BMG Ben Geiben - himself implicated to have been involved in the bombings - held a lecture about terrorism. After the lecture Geiben, another high-ranking policeman named Marc Zovilé and Henri Roemer, at the time consul in Paris, met for dinner. During the dinner, Zovilé told Roemer about the rumours of a possible involvement of Prince Jean in the bombings. Asked why he repeated these rumours, Zovilé stated during the trial last November that he had simply wanted to inform Roemer as the Grand Ducal Family regularly spent time in Paris. What Zovilé's motives were and whether he had tried to falsely implicate Prince Jean to draw attention from others remain unclear. The fact, however, that a high-ranking official repeated the rumours gave a whole new impetus to the story.

The fact that Zovilé had told the rumours to Roemer and Geiben soon reached the ears of the cour grand-ducale and Zovilé and his boss Aloyse Harpes were summoned to the palais. The court marshall of the time, Raymond Hastert, was furious and told the two policemen that rumours told by a high-ranking official have a much heavier weight than rumours on the street.

For the next twenty years or so, the rumours of a possible involvement of Prince Jean as one of the bomb planters lingered in the Grand Duchy but only gained momentum in 2005. Meanwhile, the police and prosecution weren't successful in finding those behind the bombs and so TV station RTL started an own investigation.

On November 9, 2005, RTL broadcasted a programme about the Affair Bommeleeër during which an anonymous witness claimed to have seen a well-known person at the junction of the Rue de l'Europe and the Route de Trêves near Findel Airport at 3am exactly 20 years earlier. At 10pm that same day, a bomb exploded about 450 meters from where the anonymous person, who later turned out to be Eugène Beffort, had seen the well-known one. Beffort, however, refused to reveal the identity of the person to TV cameras, but only did so in a meeting with prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker five days later.

Beffort, who died in 2012, claimed to have seen Prince Jean sitting in a car and to have reported the car and its license plate to the police. In 2005, Beffort further told prosecutors that shortly after the attack on Findel Airport, two policemen came to his house threatening him to never tell anyone again that he had seen Prince Jean near the airport during the night prior to the bombings; otherwise it would have dire consequences for him.

According to statements of the prosecutors, it is doubtful how believable Beffort's statements are as he changed a few details, such as Prince Jean's hair colour as well as the colour of the car, numerous times. Beffort also said that he was on the way to his job to work overtime though he only arrived there hours later at 7am. There was no evidence to be found about two policemen visiting Beffort after the Findel attack or of them continuing to put pressure on him not to talk about an involvement of Prince Jean in the following years. Lastly, nobody knows whether Beffort actually called the police after the attack on November 9 as nobody can remember a call and the tapes have been deleted a long time ago.

Photo: Luxemburger Wort / Wort.lu

On December 9, 2005, Prince Jean was scheduled to give a statement to the police. About a week prior to that, he and prosecutor Robert Biever, however, met up at Prince Guillaume's house in advance of Jean's questioning to to have an off the record briefing discussion. Apparently, the meeting was organised by the then minister of justice Luc Frieden. Biever is also present during the questioning of Prince Jean by the police as the prince had apparently refused to talk to the police without the prosecutor present. While nothing about this is wrong per se, it is not common and probably wouldn't have happened for a non-royal, not well-connected person.

During the questioning, Prince Jean told the police that Beffort couldn't have seen him at 3am on November 9, 1985 near Findel Airport as he did not spend that day in the Grand Duchy but instead was hunting in the forests of Loir-et-Cher near Orléans in France. To support his statement, Prince Jean gave the police a letter by his then fiancée Hélène Vestur in which she wrote that she would rather like him to spend the weekend in Paris with her. According to prosecutor Marc Weis, Prince Jean's alibi is supported by the organiser of the hunt Louis Giscard d’Estaing, former politician and son of former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. By contrast the lawyer of the accused, Gaston Vogel, states that Giscard d'Estaing stated that Prince Jean only arrived for the hunt on November 9. This inconsistencies are the main reasons for Prince Jean summoned to appear in front of the court. Prince Guillaume shall support his alibi and likely also talk about the off the record meeting prior to the interrogation of his brother.

During his interrogation, Prince Jean was also able to give the police information about his whereabouts for some of the other bombings happening between May 1984 and April 1986. For quite a number of them, he wasn't even within the Grand Duchy. In addition, a few other indicators provided by journalists over the years have been disproven by the prosecutors. Prince Jean did not have a close relationship with Ben Geiben, he did not write a threatening letter to his father Grand Duke Jean in 1978 - that was either Grand Duke Henri or Prince Guillaume but not Prince Jean - he did not learn how to handle explosives while at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, he did not have firing practices at the Grand Ducal villa in Heisdorf as the shooting range in the basement had been deconstructed after the family purchased the house, and he also did not receive 70 or 87 Luxembourgish francs to renounce his rights to the throne. Some have also alleged that the prince was involved with the Anti-Communist League but that is no prove to that story either. Thus, it seems that Prince Jean neither had the knowledge to be the Bommeleeër nor a reason to blackmail his family with bombs to give him money. And I hope that he was smarter than to get involved with a Stay Behind organisation.

After already appearing in court in the beginning of the trial and previously stating that they are willing to testify, Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume have now been summoned to appear in court. They were summoned on request of the lawyers of the accused to be questioned about the inconsistencies of the hunting alibi and the meeting at Prince Guillaume's house. It's interesting to note that one of the lawyers is Gaston Vogel, a man who could probably only be described as Grand Duke Henri's and the monarchy's biggest critic. Prior to Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume's wedding, Vogel wrote a letter to them prime minister Juncker protesting about the costs of the wedding and threatening to found a republican party. While I'm not sure if he still wishes to do so, lawyer Vogel has also stated in the past that he would like Hélène Vestur and Louis Giscard d’Estaing to appear in front of the court.

Bommeleeër Case Continued

Already in June last year, the cour grand-ducale issued a statement saying that Prince Jean and his younger brother Prince Guillaume are willing to appear in court to make their witness statements in the Bommeleeër case. The two younger sons of Grand Duke Jean already appeared in front of the judges at the very beginning of the trial early last year when all called witnesses were asked to do so. Based on article 510 and following of the Code d’instruction criminelle, princes and princesses as well as other dignitaries of the Empire - it was written in 1812... - did not need to appear in front of court.

Now the constitutional court has also ruled that the princes shall testify in the case after being charged by the criminal chamber back in June to determine whether the princes, as members of the Grand Ducal Family, can actually be summoned as witnesses. This might not be of such a great importance in this case as Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume had already agreed to appear in court but will likely also mean that in any future case, a member of the Grand Ducal Family will not be able to refuse to appear in court based on the 1812 law.

As a sidenote, I'm pretty sure that the last paragraph of the Wort article which is the base for this article is faulty. To the best of our combined knowledges, there have never "been claims implicating [...] Prince Guillaume with the bombings". He is merely one of the persons - and the only one of them asked to appear in front of the court, I believe - who can confirm his brother's alibi.

Source: Wort

Grand Duke to Announce New Elections

In case you are following any news related to the Grand Duchy apart from the Grand Ducal Family, you are probaby all too aware that Luxembourg's government has been in crisis for a few weeks now. A while ago, the Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess alongside the minister for foreign affairs and the economy even cancelled a trade mission to Switzerland due to censure motions against one minister in particular and the government in general.

All the problems are related to the scandals surrounding Luxembourg's secret service and  Bommeleeër case. In addition to the already discussed illegal wire-tapping, there have also been allegations of corruption and even a dodgy trade in luxury cars for private gain within the SREL as well as the existence of 13,000 secret files on people and businesses.

Prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker was accused of being responsible for the mismanagement of the Luxembourg secret service during his time as head of the government and also often omitting to inform the parliamentary control committee or the judiciary of its irregularities, aberrations and illegalities. The prime minister has denied those claims and had no intentions of resigning himself.

After hours of parliamentary debates yesterday and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), one of the coalition parties, withdrawing their trust from prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), the prime minister had announced to ask the Grand Duke as head of state for new elections.

In the early afternoon hours of today, Juncker made his announcement come true when he made the very short way to the palais grand-ducal to meet with Grand Duke Henri and ask him for the dissolution of the parliament. The Grand Duke has not made a decision yet but asked for time to consider.  He is expected to conduct a series of consultation with representatives of Luxembourg's parties before announcing new elections.

The Luxembourgish constitution states that within 90 days after the dissolution of the parliament, there need to be new elections. At the moment, it seems most likely that the parliament will be dissolved on October 8 and elections conducted twelve days later. Until then, the government will stay intact but is unable to pass laws or make any other decisions which necessitate a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. Prime minister Juncker has already been nominated as his party's leading candidate during the evening hours.

Sources: Wort

Grand Duke's Brothers Willing to Appear in Court

The cour grand-ducale has issued a statement regarding Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume in relation to the Bommeleeër case stating that both will appear in court to make their witness statements. (Have a look at our recent post as to why the Grand Duke's brothers are due to appear in court anyway.)

The statement of the cour reads that both Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume have already demonstrated their will to fulfill their civic duties by appearing in front of the court back in February when all called witnesses had to be appear in court at the beginning of the Bommeleeër trial. They will continue to do so by testifying in front of the court when called upon and have at no point in time considered to make provision of article 510 and following of the Code d’instruction criminelle which would allow princes and princesses as well as other dignitaries of the Empire - it was written in 1812... - not to testify. The cour also lets everyone know that the princes can't wait to hear about the outcome of the trial hoping that it will shed some light on the matter.

Source: RTL

Luxarazzi 101: Bombs, Bugging Devices and a Whole Lot of Questions

One thing upfront: This is about the fifth attempt to tackle the following subject and it has been a hard task but due to popular request, we're now finally covering it. I'm neither an expert for the darkest recesses of Luxembourgish politics or cold war NATO operations nor for intelligence services in general or the Luxembourgish one in particular. I have been loosely following the news on the matter over the last few weeks and months but certainly am not an expert. So if there are any mistakes or inaccuracies in the following article, my apologies! (If you have any corrections, let us know!)

On a similar note, the following article is simply an outline of things that have happened and are still happening, mainly focusing on the Grand Ducal Family. Originally it had been planned to write an article about the whole mess (which you could write a book about - actually, there has been written a book about, at least, part of the mess) but a longer article would be too exhaustive and exhausting.

The reason for the cancelled economic mission to Switzerland has a long background story. Today both Luxembourg's government in general and its minister for finance, Luc Frieden, in particular faced votes of no confidence in parliament. (Both motions did not have enough votes so both the government and Frieden stay in office.) The reason behind the censure motion was the claim that the minister had tried to pressure investigators to close inquiries into a series of bombings that happened in the Grand Duchy during the 1980's. 

In fact, the fish is even bigger. A series of revelations about the work of the Service de renseignement de l'État (SREL), the country's intelligence service, as well as the trial in the Affair Bommeleeër, which started earlier this year, and the involvement of politicians in it have kept the Grand Duchy busy over the last weeks and months. Even the Grand Ducal Family has been entangled in the story all along but let's start at the beginning.

During the 1980's, a series of bomb attacks shocked Luxembourg. Between May 1984 and April 1986, 20 bombs exploded in different parts of the country. Among the attacked targets were a meeting of the European heads of states and governments, power poles, infrastructure facilities, public buildings, the country's biggest newspaper, the former head of police and others. No one was killed in the bombings though in some cases it was pure luck.

To this day, it is not clear who was behind the bombings. In February, a trial against two former members of the Brigade Mobile de la Gendarmerie, a special police force, started though the motives of the accused remain unclear. Some claim that the two men are used as pawns as to cover up the real bombers or something along those lines.

Conspiracy theories have been flying high in the Grand Duchy since the 1980's and one of them actually included a member of the Grand Ducal Family, namely Prince Jean, younger brother of Grand Duke Henri.

For some reason rumours about an involvement of the prince in the bombings started in the late 1980's, at that point in time there was no prove to the story than mere gossip on the street. That is until May 1987 when a policeman brings Prince Jean up for discussion as the bomb planter. It did not help either that the prince had just recounced his rights to the throne citing business reasons, little did  Luxembourg know that he had fathered a child out of wedlock. Inquiries by the police were made but nothing came out of it.

Nevertheless, the story lingered for many years and gained momentum about 20 years later. During a TV documentary by RTL in 2005, a man came forward claiming to have seen a well known person on 9 November 1985 at 3:30am at the crossing of the Rue de l'Europe and the Route de Trêves near Findel Airport, about 450 metres from the place where at 10pm that night a bomb would explode. Only during a meeting with the prime minister he would reveal who the well known person was.

Eventually, prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker did meet with the man and he revealed the person to be no other than Prince Jean, second son of Grand Duke Jean and Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte. About a month later, the prince was interrogated by the police.

Prince Jean told the police that during the night in question he wasn't even in Luxembourg but hunting in France, in the forests of the Département Loir-et-Cher near Orléans. His alibi was both supported by members of the Giscard d'Estaing family who had organised the hunt and members of his own family as well as through a letter from Hélène Vestur, the prince's later wife, which said that she would rather like him to spend the weekend in Paris.

Inquiries showed that the testimony by the man who had claimed to have seen Prince Jean was shaky as some of his statements did not add up. In addition, the prince could prove that he was abroad while many of the other bombings occurred.

Nevertheless, the details surrounding the interogation of Prince Jean are a little fishy. It is said that he and prosecutor Robert Biever met up at Prince Guillaume's place in advance of Jean's questioning to to have an off the record briefing discussion. In addition, the prosecutor was present when the prince met with the police as Prince Jean refused to speak to the two policemen alone. These are the reasons why both Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume are among those questioned during the ongoing Bommeleeër trial.

Other theories claim that people involved with the Stay-behind organisations were behind the bombings. These NATO and CIA sponsored organisations existed in different European countries during the cold war in case their countries were to be taken over by the Warsaw Pact or if communist parties would come to power in democratic elections. According to Martin Packard in his book 'Getting It Wrong: Fragments From a Cyprus Diary 1964' they were "financed, armed, and trained in covert resistance activities, including assassination, political provocation and disinformation."

Late last year a scandal of its own was uncovered in relation to the Service de renseignement de l'État (SREL): It came to light that the intelligence service had conducted a number of warrantless eavesdroppings with bugging devices in watches and such from 2005 to 2008. (More bugging scandals happened earlier but aren't as important for the story.)

Among the illegal wiretappings happened to be a conversation between prime minister Juncker and Grand Duke Henri. During the meeting, which happened after Juncker had met with the man who had claimed to have seen Prince Jean near Findel Airport, the two talked about a possible involvement and interogation of Prince Jean. In addition, they supposedly also talked about contacts between the Grand Duke and his cour with the British MI6. The audio recording of the conversations could not yet be decoded.

In another bugged meeting between Juncker and the former head of the SREL, Marco Mille, the intelligencer claimed that Grand Duke Henri had regular contacts with the British secret service saying that the head of state had tried to get bugging devices from the MI6 without the knowledge of the SREL. Mille assumed that the cour wanted to use those to spy on members of staff and other officials that they were suspicious of. Whether those surveillance devices ever made their way to Luxembourg remains unclear.

In addition, Mille claimed to have come to the knowledge that the police officers at the service of the Grand Duke were forming some kind of a private army, not trusted by both the SREL and the police headquarters.

Both Juncker and the cour have denied any relationships between the Grand Duke and her Majesty's secret service.

Who knew that so much was going on in the little Grand Duchy! It all sounds like it was take straight out of a spy thriller... I'm sure that it will keep Luxembourg busy for the weeks and months to come.

Grand Duke's Brothers Appearing in Court

If you do not only follow the Grand Ducal Family but also other news related to Luxembourg, you might already know that today was the first day of the judicial hearings in the Affär Bommeleeër about a series of bombs that exploded during the mid-80's in Luxembourg.

Among the people due to appear in court were the Grand Duke's brothers Prince Jean and Prince Guillaume, other witnesses included the current prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and his predecessor Jacques Santer. None of the witnesses had to give their testimonies today and are not due to appear before Easter.

A video of the two princes and several others arriving can be found at RTL, pictures at Wort and Tageblatt.


Source: Wort