Another question about the "Witch Hunts" (Veritaserum)

[The Real Makarni]

No: HPFGUIDX 47762

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kethlenda <kethlenda at y...> wrote:
> I've noticed several people discussing the "witch
> hunts" in which the accused Death Eaters were put on
> trial, and the fact that several characters have been
> condemned to Azkaban on very little evidence.  It
> brings to mind a question I've had ever since I first
> read GoF.
> 
> After the fall of Voldemort, it was difficult to tell
> who had really followed him, who was innocent, and who
> was Imperius'ed.  Yet it is in that same book that the
> Veritaserum plays a major role in the plot.  Why
> didn't the Ministry of Magic administer Veritaserum to
> the accused Death Eaters, and get around the whole
> problem of trying to figure out whether they had acted
> of their own free will?  I've come up with a couple of
> possible answers:
> 
> (1) It's an accidental plot hole.
> (2) Only Snape knows how to make it, and either he
> didn't know how to make it yet at that time, or else
> was not trusted with such an important matter.
> (3) Some high muckety-mucks in the MOM didn't *want*
> the whole truth told, because they were afraid their
> own dirty laundry would be aired.
> 
> Any thoughts?

Stuff about Truth Potions has come up before, and I pointed out 
that Dumbledore instructs Snape to bring his *strongest* truth 
potion.  This means that there is a variety of truth potions, of 
varying degrees of strength. 
As there are varying strengths of such potions, it follows that truth 
serums, like the Imperius curse, can be resisted to a certain 
extent. This means someone with a particularly strong will (Mrs 
Lestrange leaps to mind), could be able to resist even 
veritaserum. And one can only imagine how dangerous a DE 
that everyone thinks is telling truth but is actually lying would be 
to the fight against evil.

Roo