He passed the video to CBS television's flagship documentary programme, 60 Minutes, which incorporated it into a broadcast programme about the doctor last November. Youk, who suffered from the muscle-wasting Lou Gehrig's disease, was too incapacitated to kill himself; the doctor applied the needle.That was what clinched the verdict That, and the doctor's boundless quest for publicity. He was acquitted three times; the fourth was declared a mistrial In the latest trial, Kevorkian was up for murder. A murder charge followed, but was dropped, though his doctor's licence was suspended the next year.Last month's trial in Pontiac was the fifth time he had been brought to book for helping people to commit suicide - a crime in Michigan as in every state except (since a referendum last year) Oregon. His first known victim, or beneficiary - depending on your viewpoint - was 54-year- old Janet Adkins that same year. Show him proper, compelling medical evidence that you should die, and Dr Jack Kevorkian will help you kill yourself free of charge".

Or to kill them, depending on your point of view.He started in 1990, touting for people - in the words of his advert - "oppressed by fatal disease, a severe handicap, a crippling deformity... His large ears are pointed, like those of a fantasy extraterrestrial; his gaze seems to pierce; his voice, while assured, sounds eerie.For Jack Kevorkian, the trial was the culmination of a crusade that he had waged for a decade and led him, by his own acknowledgement, to help 133 people to die. He could have been almost any pensioner from the professional classes Yet there was something sinister, even ghoulish, about him. He could hardly lift his arms."Have you thought hard about it?" asks a disembodied voice, quite gently."Yes, I have," says the man, his words more like rumbles, and barely intelligible.He is sitting in a wheelchair behind what looks like an ordinary home table.

His facial expression was dull and his sunken eyes darted anxiously His head lolled back periodically on his neck. The hair and beard were brown with, so far as you could tell, not a streak of grey; the features seemed those of a man in his early forties But there was no mistaking that he was desperately ill. Their verdict, and Judge Cooper's sentence, turned on a grainy amateur video, recorded by the doctor - whether in his own defence, or in the manner of an advert for his professional services, was never clarified.The slightly blurred figure in the video looked younger by far than his 52 years, and strangely guileless. It does not come unless I have significant engagements as leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament or several days' intense activity which means that I need to work while travelling by road. Like Romano Prodi, I am very happy to use the humblest of transport. My travel arrangements to meetings at Downing Street while leader of the Socialist Group have included taxis, tube and foot and even hitching a lift in a delivery van.PAULINE GREEN MEP(Lab, London North)London N18. Sir: The claim by Nato's Supreme Commander, General Wesley Clark, that Nato's bombing of a civilian passenger train near Leskovac on Monday was an "uncanny accident" (report, 14 April) must be regarded as a sick joke Nato planes bombed the train twice, from close quarters.

Unsatisfied with one "accident", the pilot apparently went back for another, when the train was clearly visible to him. The truth is that Nato is murdering civilians in Yugoslavia virtually every day and is systematically destroying the country's civilian infrastructure. A typical example of Nato's bombing strategy was illustrated in Robert Fisk's report of the same day, " `Collateral damage' lies dying in a shattered Belgrade hospital". Nato bombed barracks in the Belgrade suburb of Banjica in full knowledge that it was situated back to back with a hospital and that harm to patients was inevitable. Victims included civilians recovering from major surgery and people injured in earlier Nato attacks.I agree with Robert Fisk that Nato's claim that they go to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties is "totally untrue". I fear that these attacks on the civilian population of Yugoslavia are actually designed to terrorise the population into submission. Furthermore, I believe that Nato's threat to bomb Yugoslav radio and television transmitters arose from concern about the effects on Western public opinion of broadcasts which show the extent of human "collateral damage" in Nato's humanitarian war.Those who are suffering and will continue to suffer will not be the political leaders, here or in Yugoslavia.