Jewish student’s death reopened

A British Jewish student who was thought to have committed suicide in Germany may have been beaten to death in an anti-Semitic attack. Britain’s Times newspaper reported that British lawmakers and family members of Jeremiah Duggan called on the attorney general Tuesday to order a new inquest into Duggan’s March 2003 death in Wiesbaden, Germany. Investigators initially concluded that Duggan died from head injuries after throwing himself in the path of two cars. However, independent forensic experts are now saying the car crash likely was a setup and that Duggan, a resident of Golders Green in London, had been beaten to death first. The Sorbonne student, then 22, had skipped his father’s 60th birthday celebration to attend an anti-Iraq war gathering in Germany organized by the Schiller Institute. His family alleged that Duggan, an anti-war activist, was unaware of the group’s right-wing tendencies and was murdered when he revealed he was Jewish, the Times reported. The night of his death, Duggan phoned home to say that he was in “deep trouble” and “wanted out,” just before the phone went dead. Jeremiah’s mother, Erica, and Labor lawmakers Rudi Vis and Lord Janner called for a new inquest. “Now that we have obtained evidence from independent forensic pathologists, I am hoping that the German and the British authorities will conduct a full inquiry,” Erica Duggan said.