Mother in talks over son's death

Mr Duggan told his mother he was in "deep trouble"

BBC News/April 1, 2004
By Pat Hurst

The mother of British student Jeremiah Duggan will meet with Foreign Office officials to discuss his mysterious death in Germany last year.

Erica Duggan, of Golders Green, north London, rejects the German coroner's suicide verdict after her son, 22, was hit by two cars in Wiesbaden, in March.

A British coroner also rejected the verdict at an inquest in north London.

Mr Duggan, went to Germany for a Schiller Institute meeting - his family say the group is a "political cult."

During the UK inquest in Hornsey, Dr William Dolman said he could not accept the verdict of suicide and concluded he had died in a "state of terror."

Fatal head injuries

Mr Duggan, who is Jewish, had been studying in Paris when he made the trip to the anti-war conference in Wiesbaden.

On the night he died Mr Duggan, known as Jerry, rang his mother to say he was in "deep trouble."

His family told the UK inquest the Schiller Institute was a "dangerous and political cult with strong anti-Semitic tendencies."

The institute is led by Lyndon LaRouche, an American right-wing conspiracy theorist.

Dr Dolman said there were a lot of unanswered questions even though the German file on the case has been closed.

He recorded a narrative verdict which said Mr Duggan suffered fatal head injuries after he ran into a road and was struck by two cars.

Mrs Duggan will meet Baroness Symons, head of Consular Services at the Foreign Office to help launch the Justice for Jeremiah Campaign.