FBI VS KEY LOCKERBIE WITNESS -- NEW DAY IN COURT

Please send this far and wide --- Newspapers -- Talk Radio -- Alternative Media Outlets -- Help Shine the Light on Les Coleman

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --

14 May 2000

NEW DAY IN COURT SCHEDULED FOR FBI VERSUS KEY LOCKERBIE WITNESS

In the Uniondale federal courtroom of Judge Thomas Platt this Friday, Lester Coleman faced accusations by FBI special agents that he had committed a crime by talking about the 1988 Pan Am 103 crash over Lockerbie. Coleman's crime, according to the prosecution, was committed during a trial that took place in Kentucky earlier this year.

Coleman is a key witness in the Pan Am 103 trial, now underway in Camp Zeist, the Netherlands.

In 1997, Coleman was convicted of perjury for an affidavit presented in the same Uniondale courtroom some six and a half years earlier. It was used in a lawsuit filed by Pan American Airlines against the US. His testimony blew the whistle on a massive CIA/DEA drug smuggling operation which he said facilitated the smuggling of a bomb aboard Flight 103.

Coleman swore under oath that a bag of heroin aboard the flight, bound for a DEA drug sting operation in the US, was switched for a bag of explosives. His affidavit was recently corroborated by Roland O'Neill, an airport baggage handler whose allegations appeared in an article published by the Sunday Herald,a Glasgow paper, this April.

(1) Like Coleman, O'Neill is now considered a key witness for the defense in the Lockerbie trial.

After being convicted of perjury for his testimony in 1997, Coleman was released under supervision. But in 1999, Coleman was once again arrested in Kentucky, this time charged with possessing forged documents. The documents in question were funds sent to him from Europe to assist him in traveling to the Netherlands for Pan Am 103 hearings. Coleman, who was found guilty of the charge in a Lexington, Kentucky courtroom, is currently appealing the verdict.

The FBI's latest accusations against Coleman were met with skepticism by Judge Thomas Platt, who produced a copy of the Sunday Herald article. Suggesting that the prosecution had some explaining to do, the judge granted the plaintiffs less than a week to examine Coleman's testimony in the Kentucky trial.

Coleman is scheduled to appear once again in the Uniondale courtroom this Wednesday and Thursday (May 17-18) for a new hearing before Judge Platt. In the interim, he is locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center (Brooklyn) where he has been held for several weeks. As long as he remains in prison, he will be unable to testify in the Lockerbie trial.

This Friday, Coleman stated that he believes the FBI is persecuting him for disputing the official version of the Pan Am 103 bombing. He continues to maintain that his 1997 testimony is true, and that the Kentucky charges were fabricated to keep him from testifying in the Netherlands.

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Letters to Judge Platt are encouraged -- PLEASE SEND ONE!

Hon. Thomas C. Platt

US District Court Eastern District of NY

2 Uniondale Avenue

Uniondale, NY 11553

Here is a link to an article with more information and another article that can be sent to newspapers and radio stations.

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=2701";

COLEMAN UPDATE:PLEASE MAIL THIS NOW

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=2701

(1)

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/newsi.hts?section=News&story_id=8212

The title of referenced article is, Lockerbie: ˜I could have loaded Semtex on doomed Flight 103"

Mr. Coleman's Federal ID # is 47321-019.

For More Information --

Contact: Rayelan Allan

831 477 1550

Doretta Wildes

860 342 1355

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RMNews

P.O. Box 1784 Aptos, CA 95001

831.462.3949 TelFax