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RCMP say arrest of Wiebo Ludwig was justified

HYTHE — Wiebo Ludwig was arrested in the interest of public safety, RCMP said Sunday, even though B.C.’s Crown prosecutor decided there wasn’t enough evidence against him to proceed with charges in connection with a series of pipeline bombings.

HYTHE — Wiebo Ludwig was arrested in the interest of public safety, RCMP said Sunday, even though B.C.’s Crown prosecutor decided there wasn’t enough evidence against him to proceed with charges in connection with a series of pipeline bombings.

“We felt that there was a significant risk to public safety, especially in the Dawson Creek area,” Insp. Tim Shields, spokesman for the RCMP in British Columbia, said in a phone interview.

“We felt that there was a certain amount of pressure on us...so that’s why we executed the search warrant.”

Ludwig was arrested Friday then suddenly released a day later without being charged.

Shields repeated Sunday that police have unearthed new evidence to hand over to prosecutors in B.C., who make the call on any charges in the case.

“We have obtained new evidence within the last 48 hours that we will be submitting to Crown counsel and we believe that this evidence is significant,” he said Sunday in an interview.

“Ultimately, it will be Crown counsel’s decision as to whether or not a criminal charge is justified.”

But Shields says there is no rush to lay charges, so the investigation will continue without a deadline. RCMP continued to search Ludwig’s sprawling farm in northwest Alberta near the border with British Columbia Sunday for evidence in a half-dozen pipeline bombings over the last two years in northeastern B.C.

A woman at the Ludwig farm confirmed by telephone that dozens of Mounties are still searching the buildings and property, which is home to more than 50 people.

Shields confirmed the search of the farm may continue for several days.

“We have investigators on the property day and night and the warrant expires on Tuesday evening,” he said. “We’re confident that we’ll have that search completed before the expiry of the warrant.”

Ludwig, who was convicted of bombing sour gas wells in Alberta and served two-thirds of a 28-month sentence, could not be reached for comment Sunday.

But he told CBC that he was interrogated for several hours by RCMP Friday before being released and said his interrogators compared him to South African president Nelson Mandela, who was jailed in his battle against apartheid.

“They talked about having my DNA,” he said. “It was about a 10 hour drilling to try to break my spirit and compare to me to Nelson Mandela and all that kind of ego tripping, hoping I would have enough ego to think, yeah I’m like Nelson Mandela and cough up like he did at the end, just before he got 27 years,” he told the CBC.

Ludwig’s lawyer said Friday that his client was told he’d be charged with extortion in connection with six natural gas pipeline bombings along with letters demanding that Calgary-based EnCana energy cease operations.

Shields says the Mounties believe they had the “legal authority and legal justification” to arrest Ludwig, 68.

“The legal test or the burden of proof that would justify an arrest is significantly lower than the burden of proof that is required by Crown counsel to approve a criminal charge,” he said.

“So, after a substantial review of all of the evidence that we have obtained so far, we are very satisfied that the timing of the arrest and the justification of the arrest was highly appropriate.

The warrant allows police to search the property for five days for various items, including explosives, and will end late Tuesday if there’s no extension.

But Shields did not reject the term “fishing expedition” to describe what the RCMP are currently doing on the Ludwig’s farm.

“That is usually what search warrants, in a certain way, are all about,” he said. “We are there to look for evidence. And of course we believe that there is evidence there.”

RCMP have not asked the people living on the communal farm to leave the property, although they are restricting their movements. Shields says normally, people would be required to leave when a property is being search. But he says this is an unusual case.

“We’re going everything we can to ensure that we’re thorough in the search and make the search as bearable as possible for the people living there.”